No Shortage, but Accessing Bananas is Expensive
The banana industry is also facing challenges. Agriculture Minister Jose Abelardo Mai confirmed that a disease has been affecting the production of the plants, hampering their exportation. That is compounded by the high cost of fertilizers used during production. He says production is expected to reduce between six hundred thousand and a million boxes. A few weeks ago, vendors in Belize City complained of not having access to the fruit. It’s a staple for Belizeans, but according to Minister Mai, there is no shortage of bananas. However, the cost of getting them to vendors has been affecting the local market. Minister Mai says he is optimistic that the industry can be saved with government intervention.
Jose Abelardo Mai
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
“They were telling me that it is not that there is a shortage, it is the cost of acquiring the banana, of going to look for it and taking it to the ripening house and distributing it. That cost has gone up. What we eat locally are bananas that do not make it to the export market. Those who want to buy bananas to sell on the local market go and they have to physically select that banana, pack it up and then bring it to the ripening house.”
Reporter
“…which they get for free though.”
Jose Abelardo Mai
“Yeah, they get for free. Now, they are saying that the process of going to do that – taking their people to get the bananas, packing it in truck, taking it to a ripening house, distributing it – has become expensive and so they say they will pause on it. But to add on that, I will tell you that I’ve had three meetings with the banana people and they are going through difficult times. And if you didn’t know this, I will also inform you that banana is highly dependent on fertilizers. In the sugar industry, we use two bags per acre per year – that’s what we can afford. It should be more depending on the analysis. But bananas, they use two bags per month per acre so that’s an awful lot of fertilizer. And the cost of fertilizer has gone up by three hundred percent in the last year. So last year, some producers were unable to fertilize their field. This has caused production to take a dive. Secondly, climate change has affected the banana industry tremendously. The change in rainfall pattern, the change in wind currents have caused the banana plantations to come under heavy attacks of the sigatoka. Now, sigatoka is a disease that affects the leaves and de-leafing has to occur to avoid further spread of the disease. When you remove the leaves, you stay with three functional leaves. Any banana plant that has three functional leaves the fruit on that plant will not be able to export because it ripens on the voyage. And so we have high amounts of bananas that as left, cannot be exported has to be sold locally. The other problem with the banana people is that while that banana is still exportable to other countries, the agreement they have with Fyffe’s is that you cannot sell that banana to another country where Fyffe’s has presence. Now that’s a more complicated matter.”
