$50-million support for banana and plantain farmers

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries will be providing an immediate support of $50 million in input relief, through The Banana Board, to banana and plantain farmers in Portland and St. Mary.

This announcement was made by Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Floyd Green, at a virtual media briefing held at the Ministry’s Hope Gardens offices on August 25.

“We have to get that sector back up and running as quickly as possible. We were on a growth trajectory, in fact our production numbers for bananas have increased our production numbers for plantain increased by 25% and, importantly, our export numbers for banana have gone up significantly,” said Green.

The plantain and banana farmers in the eastern part of the country were among the worst affected by Tropical Storm Grace on August 17 resulting in a 29% loss to the industries.

Noting that the total loss to the industries is about $300 million, Green emphasised the urgent need to help the farmers to get back into production.

St. Thomas, Portland and St. Mary were among the five hardest-hit parishes with preliminary estimates of losses amounting to over $500 million.

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