A banana worker tends to the fruit being carried on a conveyor system at the St Mary Banana Estate in Agualta Vale. - File

Laurie Broderick, government member of Parliament's Internal and External Affairs Committee, yesterday accused some local players in the banana industry of sourcing cheaper fruit, in the Central American market, for export, while ignoring the plight of local growers.

However, the committee's chairman, Anthony Hylton, and former head of the Jamaica Producers Group, Dr Marshall Hall, both deny the charge.

At the same time, president of the All-Island Banana Growers Association, Bobby Pottinger, told The Gleaner yesterday that he would not comment on the matter, describing it as "big politics".

During yesterday's committee meeting, a strident Broderick contended that "there are certain local players in the banana industry - nobody wants to talk the truth - when they get these preferential arrangements, you think that there would be a drive to get everybody to plant bananas for export".

He added, "No, it would appear they enjoy the shortfall so that they can sail their vessels very nice and happy and confidently into the dollar market - the Central American market where they can pick up the fruit cheaper and then sell under our quota."

Despite Hylton's claims otherwise, Broderick insisted his comments were accurate, albeit politically sensitive.

When The Gleaner contacted Hall yesterday afternoon, he said, "People going to Central America to get cheaper fruit opposed to Jamaican fruit, there is no truth to that at all."