John Myers Jr., Business Reporter

Florida has turned back two of three shipments of Jamaica's coconut following discovery of dead red palm mites in the containers. The pest was first discovered in Jamaica about three months ago.

It has been detected by the plant and quarantine units in St. Thomas, St. Catherine and Kingston, but local officials are urging farmers not to panic, saying efforts were underway to contain the spread.

Jimmy Joyles, general manager of the Coconut Industry Board (CIB), said his agency, together with supervision from the local representative of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), have been fumigating trees here.

The mite has also been attacking trees across the region. It was discovered in Martinique back in 2004, and also detected in St. Lucia, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, part of the United States Virgin Islands.

In Trinidad alone, the mite, coupled with a dry season, has halved annual production.

As a result, Florida, through its watchdog Department of Agriculture, has strengthened import guidelines to guard against the introduction of the pest into the U.S. Florida is fearfulthat the red palm mite will destroy its ornamental palm industry.

Coconut is not a big money earner for Jamaica, but export sales actually doubled to $42 million in 2006, up from $22.8 million in 2005

The country's production in the last three years has averaged 15,400 tonnes or 96,470 nuts. Florida is its main export market, and at present, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica are the only countries in the region that export coconuts to the U.S.

Last year, CIB exported over 370,000 nuts valued at over US$600,000; year-to-date, nearly 300,000 nuts valued about US$500,000 have been shipped, mostly to Florida.

Coconut production here has fallen significantly from a high of some 154,800 nuts in 1996 to a mere 95,870 a decade later due mainly to the lethal yellowing disease.

The red palm mite causes serious leaf damage, which ruins the ornamental value of palms. It also consumes banana and plantain plants. According to the USDA, symptoms on coconut leaflets start as small yellow spots on the abaxial - side located away from the axis - leaflet surface, after which they develop into larger, chlorotic spots signalling a decline of chlorophyll.

When a plant is heavily infested, dense colonies of the pest appear along the midrib of the leaflet and green coconut leaves turn from bright green to pale green, then yellow and finally a copper-brown. But the USDA warned that symptoms caused by a heavy infestation of this mite could be confused with a nutritional deficiencies or possibly lethal yellowing, an unrelated disease that is deadly to coconut palms.

Jamaica is just now wrapping up a replanting project for trees that had been infested by lethal yellowing. The CIB in trying to revive the industry by expanding the tree population had introduced the five-year programme in 2002, which it .will wrap up by yearend.

At the end of 2006, just over 54,000 seedlings of the Malayan Dwarf and Maypan hybrid were replanted, falling short of the 100,000 target. The board has blamed a shortage of Maypan hybrid seedlings, drought, and a lack of younger farmers entering the industry for the poor replanting rate.

john.myers@gleanerjm.com