Banana report on first four weeks of shipment released

Banana farmers still have their work cut out for them, as shipments of the produce to the regional and extra-regional market, which recently resumed, got off to a shaky start.{{more}}

So say officials in the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Transformation, Forestry, Fisheries and Industry, at a press conference which took place at the Ministry of Agriculture conference room on Tuesday, as the report on the first shipments after a two-month suspension was released.

The officials did not seem too surprised by the quality statistics for the first four weeks of export beginning April 15, which saw 5,580 boxes shipped in that period.

As Senior Agricultural Officer Sylvester Vanloo announced the results of the bananas shipped to the United Kingdom, he placed the majority of the blame on poor cultural practices by farmers, who he said should use the Quality Scores information as a “stepping stone” towards better exports going forward.

“We had ten per cent ripe and turning fruits, and this is not attributed to the Black Sigatoka. The ten per cent that has caused our problem now is because of overaged fruit; because one of the recommended practices that farmers must use is ribbon taping; that gives the indication of the age of the fruit and also the grade of the fruit, and those things were not fully addressed.”

“In terms of the other defects…, we could have seen that we had other farmers overloading the tubs, and even though the fruit was placed in water, any impact on the fruit would result in bruises.”

Vanloo informed the public that the Percentage Unit Within Specifications (PUWS) was 75% of the required 90%; while consistency was 30%, which is 55% below the required target.

He said that while the first report has some genuine concern, it was not too alarming.

Chief Agricultural Officer Reuben Robertson agreed with Vanloo, pointing out that the less than flattering report was no reason to put international shipments on hold.

“….Moreover, Winfresh is in partnership with us; and Winfresh has given the assurance that it will continue to buy the fruits from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, once the quality shows sign of improvement; and that they will work together with us to ensure that we improve on the quality.”

“We could understand why that (poor quality) happened. About two to three weeks before the shipment, there was no exportation of bananas at all from St. Vincent to the region, and farmers being depressed and having no sources of income from the bananas, saw it as an opportunity to really run the risk to put some of those fruits into the box, not knowing that they have already gone that far….”

The Minister of Agriculture also had his say with regard to the exports, calling on farmers to raise the standard of their produce, and announced that steps have been taken to ensure that this is done.

He announced that a quality enhancement and certification task force has been established to ensure that as many farmers as possible are certified, and that the quality of bananas produced for the regional and extra-regional market is significantly improved.

The task force consists members of the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Fair Trade Organization, the Ministry of Health and Winfresh.

“Getting back to the quality scores that are needed for the extra-regional market would definitely be a work in progress over a period of time,” Caesar said.

“It is a given that after several weeks of not having a shipment, after farmers would have been grappling with several factors…, we would not have been able to get the quality issue correct from the get-go.”

“We have to produce the highest grade of bananas that we possibly can, If we want to maintain our stakes on the UK market and region or not. It is a task where every single person in the industry would have to play a critical role.”

The second quality score is expected to be released soon, and is expected to be more favourable.(JJ)