Caribbean press reports indicate that banana prices were at an all time high last week in Barbados, but in St Vincent, fruit was being dumped because of over-production.
“Twenty thousand pounds of bananas to be exact; 5,000 boxes containing 40 pounds of bananas each," disclosed a frustrated Jethro Greene, managing director of the Eastern Caribbean Trading, Agriculture and Development Organisation (ECTAD).
“There is no reason that bananas should be more expensive in Barbados than they are in Europe. That's ridiculous when we have bananas dumped every day,” said Greene.
Consumers in Barbados were paying up to $4.39 (£1.12) a kilo for the fruit “Both St Vincent and Dominica produce so many bananas,” lamented Greene. “Why can't we develop a system where we can have bananas reaching Barbados? We have to develop a better distribution system internally and externally so we can get fruits and other commodities throughout the Caribbean. It's not that the food isn't there. It's that the distribution system and the management systems are weak.”
Greene was in Barbados this week delivering a series of workshops to help Caribbean growers learn more about marketing, service how to mobilise resources.
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