| KINGSTON, May 19 (JIS): |
 The
banana industry is increasing its importance to the economy, through
its contribution to foreign exchange earnings and import substitution,
with small and medium growers having registered 45 per cent increases
in their production in 2003.Minister of Agriculture, Roger Clarke, made this observation while speaking in the 2004/05 Sectoral Debate on Tuesday (May 18) in Gordon House. “One of the more encouraging aspects of the agricultural portfolio has been the move to add value to primary produce. In this regard, the banana industry is a good example,” he stated, adding, “the fact is that local annual consumption is now at 100,000 tonnes and this is in no small way due to the growth of the banana chips industry”. An export quota of 60,000 tonnes per year plus the local consumption demands, the Agriculture Minister pointed out, would make it difficult for farmers to keep pace with the overall market requirements. It was encouraging, the Agriculture Minister noted, that despite the closure of the Victoria Banana Company, which produced 7,000 tonnes, the industry still managed to achieve a small increase from 39,896 tonnes to 40,000 tonnes in 2003. “This is as a result of strategies being put in place to increase productivity, both on large estates and on the smaller farms of regular growers,” he stated. The fact that small and medium growers had managed to increase their production by over 40 per cent last year, he said, was due in part to “the exciting demand for banana on the local market, which has created new marketing opportunities”. Mr. Clarke warned however, that the trade issues concerning bananas and the repercussions of the Word Trade Organistion (WTO) banana ruling had not yet passed completely. He noted that the European Union (EU) was about to establish a tariff only regime to replace its current Banana Import Regime and this meant that African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) banana producers would need to lobby for a tariff that would offer maximum WTO compatible protection against bananas originating in Latin America. Mr. Clarke also informed that to date, the dreaded Moko disease had not yet been detected in any banana growing area outside of St. James and subsequent laboratory testing of materials suggested that the disease had not been introduced to Jamaica through diseased banana or plantain corms. Through the Ministry’s swift move to contain the spread of Moko by instituting an eradication programme, along with technical and consultative assistance by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Agriculture Minister said, a total of approximately eight hectares (20 acres) of affected fields had already been eradicated. |
