The devastating earthquake that hit Haiti last week is causing chaos in the Caribbean produce industry, with volumes, trade and labour taking a severe hit from the natural disaster.
Producers across Hispaniola, the island that Haiti occupies with its neighbour the Dominican Republic, have been punished by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake. The Fairtrade and organic produce sectors in the UK are likely to feel the effects.
Many Haitian workers, who make up a vast proportion of the field and packhouse workers in the Dominican Republic, have fled home to help with relief work and to find their families.
The Haitian crisis has added to the issue of severe weather conditions, as it has barely stopped raining in the Dominican Republic since Christmas. The volume of bananas originating from the Dominican Republic arriving in the UK was said to be down by 40 per cent last week.
It is likely that banana volumes from the Dominican Republic will be down around 25-30 per cent on normal levels in the coming weeks.
Steve Chaplin, logistics director at Dole Fresh UK, told freshinfo: “These kind of weather conditions are common at this time of year, but the continued rain and cloud cover has been particularly bad, meaning the fruit maturation period has slowed down and volumes have declined.
“The horrific situation in Haiti has added to this, as workers have gone to see their families and it is not easy to pick up that amount of labour quickly.”
Despite widely reported issues in getting international aid to Haiti, trade links from the Dominican Republic remain good, with no infrastructure affected and traffic through the ports remaining normal.
The Fairtrade sector is expected to be severely affected, as a large quantity of the category’s bananas are sourced from the Dominican Republic.
Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade producers of bananas, coffee and cocoa have united as a commission to provide supplies of water, medicine and green bananas through the Banelino
co-op, which is located near the border between the two countries. The commission is also to undertake a house rebuilding project in the coming months.
Vicky Pauschert, communications assistant at Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, told freshinfo: “We have had problems contacting mango producers in Haiti and obviously, the long-term implications of this disaster are not good. We are looking into ways to offer support and producers in the Dominican Republic have come up with aid, but the devastating effects of the earthquake, coupled with poor infrastructure in Haiti anyway, have thrown up difficulties.
“There are increasing numbers of producers replying to our calls and emails and mainly reporting losses of life among their relatives and families in Port-au-Prince. So far, it seems that the south of Haiti, where some of the producers are located, has been affected a lot by the earthquake as well.”
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