Maya Papaya/Eagle Produce restart operations

Tonight there is good news to report on a story we aired last week on the closure of Maya Papaya. According to Co-owner Abe Dyck, the company was able to get some funding from its U.S. buyers to pay employees and on Thursday restarted operations. By phone today, Dyck told News Five that the situation remains shaky and likened it to quote, “operating on one leg” as the financing was not enough to purchase supplies, which they could be running out of in the next two weeks. And although Maya Papaya shipped eight containers last week and is planning for the same quota this week, the company operates on a thirty-day consignment, so those funds won’t help them in the interim. One silver lining, however, is that after having meetings with the relevant government ministers and departments on Monday and Tuesday, today a surveyor was at the Indian Church company surveying a five hundred acre portion of the property so that G.O.B. can move on the land title. Dyck says that title, which will hopefully be in hand by next week, will prevent the bank from foreclosing on the business. In the meantime, the company continues to seek alternate funding.

Maya Papaya’s troubles began last August when the company says it suffered a two million dollar loss after the passage of Hurricane Dean. That hit, plus an inability to access credit because they did not have any title for their land, forced the owners to close and send their almost four hundred workers home on July eighteenth.