Folks,
it’s official; we now have a banana chips shortage in Jamaica.
The
banana chips industry is based on using green bananas that did not meet export
standards.
However,
since 2004 when hurricanes wreaked havoc on the Jamaican Banana sector, farmers
have been leaving the Banana Sector altogether as pointed out by David Martin,
general manager of JP Tropical Foods, quote: “The country (Jamaica) had seen a
series of hurricanes beginning with Ivan in 2004, then there were Dennis and
Emily. There were five of them (storms); the last one that took us out of the banana
export business was Gustav in 2008”.
Add
to that the fact that Banana farmers dislike selling green bananas to banana
chip manufactures. They instead prefer to keep them longer and make them ripen
to sell to higglers, who pay them twice as much for the same low-quality bananas
on the local market. In fact, that sale price triples when they sell bananas to
the tourism sector.
Jamaica's
banana export market is dwindling, and is now a shadow of itself from its
former glory days as pointed out by general manager of the Jamaica Banana
Board, Janet Conie, quote: “We had a
large export market in the 1990s and early 2000s when export was in excess of
50,000 tons, sometimes over 70,000 tons, and we were producing the same amount
for the domestic market. Now we are not exporting a lot. Last year, we exported
410 tons while our local production was 57,000 tons”.
That’s
right folks: 410 tons in 2016 when back in the 1990s and early 2000s, 50,000 to
70,000 tons was the norm.
So
what must be done?
Jamaica’s Banana
Industry Dilemma – Panama Disease Threatens an already dying Industry
There
is a need to increase banana production as pointed out by general manager of
the All-Island Banana Growers Association, Donald Elvey, quote: “The real issue
is that we need to increase domestic banana production by another 20,000 tons.
We are on target to do that, but again, because of the cyclic production, you
will find that during the summer months, the farmers have difficulties in
selling their banana, so people are averse to further expansion in acreage”.
Their
need to be a banana sector geared to supplying banana chip producers
specifically, as it has now gotten to the point that Jamaica Producers (JP),
manufacturers of St Mary Banana Chips, has been importing banana chips from the
Dominican Republic.
One
of the largest growers of bananas locally, JP (Jamaica Producers),
manufacturers of St Mary Banana Chips, established a factory in the Dominican
Republic (DR) in 2006 from where it has been importing some of its chips.
In
fact, JP is slowly making the decision to move their banana chip production to
the Dominican Republic, to quote David Martin: “We decided we needed two supply
options, so we still operate a factory in Annotto Bay, St Mary, and we
commissioned a factory in the DR in August 2007. And there have been hurricanes
since, as recently as 2012, which flattened the farm here in Jamaica, which we
have put back up since then. But when it was flattened the only place we could
supply our chips from was the DR factory”.
JP
are not alone; Maroon Pride, despite planting their own acreages of banana,
still cannot get enough to operate their production facilities for more than
three days a week, to quote Manager of Maroon Pride, Robert Chambers: “Right
now, we can't operate for five days a week, we operate for two or three days.
The production is really low and this is because of the difficulty in sourcing
the supply, so we just give thanks that we can still stay afloat”.
A
leading banana chips manufacturer in the west, they have to compete with the
hotels, whom the few banana farmer that are left prefer to sell their banana.
Chippies,
another banana chip brand, is now down to 10% of the market, due to the banana
shortage. They can only supply smaller 20ft container worth of the product to
their various suppliers, to quote an unnamed company official: “There is a
shortage because we are just not getting enough green bananas. We do export a
little bit and some of the persons we export to we usually supply them with
40ft containers, but now they have to be taking 20ft containers because we cannot
supply. One particular distributor who is on Amazon hasn't received any product
for the past month”.
Jobs
are on the line; fewer people are being hired in Chippies' packaging plant,
again quoting this unnamed official: “Business has been impacted in a very
negative way. We have downsized quite a bit in terms of both factory staff and
office staff. We have been doing that for a while because of the whole supply
situation. ... So when people leave we don't replace them”.
So
urgent action is needed to get the Banana Industry and it periphery industry,
the Banana Chip Industry back on its feet. Otherwise we may be facing the
extinction of Banana by 2020.