Bobby Pottinger, chairman of the Jamaican All Island Banana Growers’ Association, has said banana exports from the Caribbean country will continue.
His announcement comes a week after Charles Johnston, chairman of Jamaica Producers Group (JPG), told freshinfo that exports would cease as it closed operations at its Eastern Banana Estate following five devastating hurricanes over the past decade.
Pottinger said: “The fact that JPG is out of it does not mean an end to our exports. We represent all growers and have already done a survey among them and many want to continue.”
Although JPG is a private company, it leases the land at Eastern Banana Estate from the government. According to Pottinger, it is this land that JPG now plans to use for sugar cane production, but the government can make a decision on any proposed change of use. Pottinger believes that JPG should be able to dedicate some of the land to cane production, while the government can lease out smaller parcels of the remainder of the farm to banana growers.
He said: “JPG is coming out of banana production because of the hurricanes, but the way the growers see it is that vast amounts of EU funds have gone into the Eastern farm for irrigation equipment and banana production infrastructure and it would be a shame to destroy all that. Banana production on the farm could be back by February. It will not be the end for Jamaican banana exports.”
Pottinger said he had yet to meet with Johnston, but had already written to Jamaican agriculture minister Christopher Tufton. The minister’s office confirmed that officials would be meeting with the association, as well as JPG and other stakeholders, to find a way forward.
Tufton said: “We believe that we can use this event not only to expedite the development of an appropriate strategy for Jamaica’s banana industry, but also to ensure that the use of the rural diversification funds in areas where banana production is no longer viable will indeed achieve the overall objective of sustainable development and replace the economies lost by bananas.”
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