Widely regarded as having the standout agro processing sector in the Caribbean, based on the success that its agro produce has enjoyed on the international market, Jamaica is reportedly focused on repairing the extensive damage that was inflicted on its huge farms that provide the various fruits, vegetables, spices and herbs that sustains the agro processing sector, raking in a significant share of the country’s foreign earnings.
One indication of the scale of the damage wreaked by Beryl, and the projected magnitude of the restoration exercise, is reflected in an article published in the Wednesday, July 10, issue of The Jamaica Observer which quotes the Chief Executive Officer of the Jamaica Producers Group, Jeffrey Hall, as saying that “over 90 per cent of the banana crops at the company’s St Mary farm was destroyed.”
According to The Observer, the CEO said that that the extent of the losses amounted to an “industry-wide catastrophe.” The Observer report further quotes Hall as saying that while the full extent of the losses was yet to be determined, “with the almost total loss of the banana crop at its St Mary, Jamaica farm, consumers will see shortages of the fruit in the next six to eight months.”
Meanwhile, The Observer report alludes to the Beryl-related losses suffered by another Jamaican agro-processor, “with large acreage under crops, Trade Winds Citrus, the producer of the Tru-Juice brand of juices,” as being one of the companies that had taken a ‘heavy hit’ from Beryl’s tirade. The report put the company’s hurricane-related losses at J$20 million at its Bog Walk, St Catherine farm. The company’s Managing Director, Peter McConnell, is quoted as saying to the Jamaica Business Week that approximately 30,000 to 40,000 pineapple plants were washed away and that a further 300,000 plants were flooded after a river nearby broke its banks. The company’s CEO told the Business Week that they are “working tirelessly to remove debris and treat the affected plants with fungicide to prevent disease.”
