Hurricane Dean has wiped out entire swathes of the banana crop on three small eastern Caribbean islands.
Authorities have reported that in St Lucia and Martinique, two adjacent islands that bore the brunt of Dean’s 100mph winds on Friday, the entire harvest was ruined by flooding or toppled trees. The industry in Dominica has also taken a battering.
“From what we have seen, farmers may have to start all over again, as the last of the banana industry may have been wiped out,” said Stephenson King, the acting prime minister of St Lucia.
On the French island of Martinique, agriculture minister Louis Daniel Berthome said banana farmers were emotionally devastated.
More info to follow in this week’s FPJ.
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