What Does The Future Hold for Citrus and Banana?

The year 2023 was not a good one for the citrus and banana industries in terms of revenues. Even citrus bi-products did not do well on the market. There was a marginal increase last year in those returns, but according to the Minister of Agriculture, the uptick in those numbers have not yet reached significant heights to register much of a difference. But Mai said that there is a plan in place to improve those numbers going forward.

Jose Abelardo Mai

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“Both of these industries have been undergoing very, very difficult challenges. Citrus disease is just there. We have been working with them, we are trying, we have, there are new varieties of citrus being tested at this time, and some of them are starting to bear. They look pretty promising, but the disease has caused a lot of damage to citrus. The Prime Minister has appointed a task force to look at the situation in citrus and to make recommendations. On that task force, my ministry is being represented by Hugh O’Brien, again, and they are supposed to get back any time now. I think in the next week or so, with a report to determine what do we do with citrus. Bananas has been similar, not as bad because of climate change. Bananas’ biggest problem is Sigatoka and the high rate of fertilization required. So during the time when the price of fertilizer just went by, increased by 300 percent, the farmers were unable to fertilize as was required by the plant. So we had a dip in production, one. And two, because of excess rains, we had the siga toca, we just got in and made a lot of damage. And you know, when you have siga toca, you have to de-leaf. When you de-leaf the banana plant and you only leave three functioning leaves on the plant. The fruit that is harvested from the plant will not make it to the U.S. market or to the European market because it ripens on the way. So that fruit has to be disregarded for the export market. This has caused significant problems. We are seeing slight increases over last year’s quarter, from the report I got. So hopefully – we have made available a small loan facility for them to try to procure inputs, right? That is required for the banana sector.”