Banana production in St Lucia and St Vincent has been completely destroyed by Hurricane Tomas, which swept the islands at the weekend.
Bernard Cornibert of exporter Winfresh told freshinfo on Wednesday that parts of St Lucia were still cut off, with telecommunication lines down and roads blocked.
“Preliminary assessments show that there is 100 per cent damage on St Lucia and on St Vincent,” he said. “Both islands have been hit almost equally and will be out of production for six to nine months.”
Although Winfresh will still be able to honour its programmes with customers by making up the shortfall in supplies from the Dominican Republic and other sources, banana farmers on the affected islands will be hit hard.
“Unless farmers have other sources of income, they are in very difficult circumstances,” said Cornibert. “Some are totally dependent on bananas and will lose their income. There are many losses apart from bananas and many families have lost their homes. There is one whole family that was completely lost when their home was swept away in a landslide and the whole family perished.”
Prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves put total damage in agriculture at an estimated EC$67 million (£15.4m). “We have to assist the farmers with not just this replanting, but with income support during the period when the crops are growing... certainly at least seven months,” Gonsalves said. He said 2,180 acres of bananas, with a value of EC$22.2 million and EC$14.4 million worth of plantains, on 1,242 acres, have been wiped out.
