From the UK’s Guardian newspaper: Europe mustn’t abandon Windward Islands banana farmers. Here are some excerpts:
The destruction caused by Hurricane Tomas in the Caribbean in recent weeks is heartbreaking. But although the destruction in Haiti received media coverage, Tomas’s intensity was reserved for the eastern Caribbean. A spiralling storm lingered over St Lucia. The deluge created terrible landslides, cutting off the south of the island. The damage is similar in St Vincent and Dominica.
Now we are facing up to the total destruction of the Windward Islands’ rural economy. Tomas has ripped up virtually every banana tree in St Lucia and St Vincent where the entire crop has been wiped out. Coconuts, cocoa and breadfruit are also all gone.
Farmers who rely on bananas face an economic disaster, and a food emergency is looming. They will have no income for at least eight months, until the next harvest. That is if they can afford to replant trees.
…
With no bananas coming to Britain from the Windwards for the next nine months, farmers fear retailers such as Sainsbury’s and Waitrose will lose sight of the positive impact made by their purchase of Windwards’ Fairtrade bananas. This includes enabling small farmers to improve banana quality and packing facilities, and to invest in local education and health. Retailers may now stick with the cheaper Latin American bananas. Urgent clarification is needed from Britain’s best-known supermarkets that they will not abandon the Windwards once trees are replanted.
…
Some people may ask why the Windwards continue to grow bananas. Surely, they say, there are more profitable sources of income?However, there are no ready alternatives. And the power of agribusiness, which won the banana wars, is just as prevalent in other crops. But the Windwards can diversify beyond the dependency on bananas. It has the expertise. What it needs is help to develop competitiveness: reducing costs and winning new markets. This is why Fairtrade is so important
Read the full article on the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters” blog.
Learn about the Windwards Islands Farmers’ Association (WINFA) at fairtrade.org.uk and at the WINFA website.
[Photo: ctsnow ]
