Windfall coming for Vincentian banana farmers

Vincentian banana farmers will receive a windfall for Christmas.

The Windward Islands Banana Development and Exporting Company Limited (WIBDECO) has announced a payout of $495,259 for bananas sold during the first half of the year.

It is part of EC$1.8 million in retrospective payments across the Windward Islands and payable only to those farmers who are still in production at the end of November.{{more}}

“The payment is intended to send a clear signal to the banana growers of the importance of production during the first half of the year and correspondingly of the difficulties of dealing with production surges during the second half of the year when market conditions are decidedly less favourable,” a release from WIBDECO stated.

It added that this was part of a set of measures being introduced to take into consideration the market dynamics and changes in the EU banana import regime.

“Among these will be a new pricing structure giving a greater weight to prices in the first half-year compared to those of the second half-year,” the release stated.

WIBDECO said that the payment, which was free of withholding charges, was being made at this time in order to allow the farmers to implement the type of farming practices which were required in order to maximise on pricing regime for next year.