Twenty Million Dollars in Losses Agriculture Industry Caused by Hurricane Lisa

Jose Mai

The losses in the agriculture sector, as a result of the damages caused by Hurricane Lisa, are estimated to be twenty million dollars. According to the Minister of Agriculture, Jose Mai, cane fields were destroyed, and a lot of fruits trees were also damaged. He says assessments are still ongoing.

Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“The last update I got was thirteen point something million dollars but we haven’t finished the assessment as yet. So, I think it will grow. We are still working in all the villages. We hope to finish the assessments by weekend here. But, I think it is going to be between fifteen and twenty million. Sugar cane very much affected by Santander, some cane fields in Orange Walk, fruit trees, a lot of fruit trees are down. For example, we have the farm for this gentleman Larry Flowers. He called me and he was very distraught, because they have one of the largest sour sop fields in the country and they have been pollinating by hand. So they had a high fruit set in the trees and all those blossoms, all those young fruits are just gone now. While the trees are still there the loss are going to be tremendous. Imagine each tree has three hundred sour sop on it and you sell each one fih ten dollars. So, he lost a lot and I am sure there are others who lost more too. So we are still doing that assessment.”