Banana farmers could be back in business by Monday – Charles Watty

bananaFarmers who are being affected by a Winfresh suspension of banana purchase could be back in business as early as next week.

This is according to President of the National Fair Trade Organization (NFTO), Charles Watty.

A recent article by the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) stated that Winfresh (UK) Ltd, distributor and importer of bananas has suspended the purchase of bananas from Dominica because of the poor quality of fruits caused by the deadly fungal disease, Black Sigatoka.

Watty said a core group of banana farmers on the island was affected by the suspension.

“It is a core group of farmers on island who produce bananas and because of their poor quality Winfresh has suspended them,” he said. “But they are working together with the organization to get the farmers back to ship bananas come Monday next week.”

Watty revealed that NFTO is working with farmers to improve the quality of their bananas.

“We are visiting their farms and speaking to them and to see that they improve on whatever they are doing,” he explained. “The field officers will be going out when these farmers will be harvesting to look and see that they pack the correct fruits in the boxes.”

He believes that the company is trying its best to combat the spread of Black Sigatoka, a leaf-spot disease of banana plants caused by the ascomycete fungus, Mycosphaerella fijiensis.

“We have been doing a lot of spraying, but later down this month we should start spraying,” he stated. “The Black Sigatoka is not a disease you can get rid of but you can control it. So we are hoping to get it under control in the very near future so that Dominica should be way ahead on banana once again.”

He noted that it would cost the island over $30,000 for one cycle of spraying to keep the disease at bay.

“The Windward Islands on a whole is not really producing the oil neither fungicide and it is a very costly exercise and at the end of the exercise it would cost the government of Dominica over $30,000 for one cycle because the fungicide is very expensive,” he said. “The government is the one that really take the full charge of the Black Sigatoka.”

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36 Comments

  1. The Baptiste
    January 9, 2015

    We are been told that campaign is over, that the hunting season is over, if that is so why then does the lies, deception, and propaganda continue? Claims are been made that people like myself continue to pursue political agendas, but I ask you, Is not the issue of our agriculture sector and our banana production and export been politicized? Why are the hard working farmers of Dominica, who have been the foundation of the economy, been denied access to necessary materials including fertilizer, needed chemicals to combat the dreaded black sigatoga, nematicides, and other inputs so vital for the production of fruits?
    I am forced to ask whether there is a conspiracy against the certain agricultural communities, or just against certain farmers. I do not know, hence the reason for my questions. I am calling on the responsible persons to help stop the speculation, and provide the community with honest and credible answers to this serious threat to the Dominican economy.

  2. January 9, 2015

    Boy watty what blunt you pull before giving Dno that interview? The demise of banana was not over night you come talking pie in the sky initiative to ship banana by next week Monday. Allu fellas really not easy. Boss go back to the drawing board, and nip the problem at the root!!!

  3. Ma Moses
    January 9, 2015

    Miracles do happen. Still, I don’t know where they are going to sell these bananas for export seeing that the local price at Whitchurch supermarket has gone from$2.06/lb on monday to $.2.21/lb on thursday (that is U.S.$.0.82/lb in my book). How much are they retailing for at Wallmart or Aldi in the U.S. ? That would be interesting to know.

    • Worried Dominican
      January 9, 2015

      Here in London, England today, if you go to the market place they are selling five bananas for one pound sterling!! If you go to the supermarket, you may get it for 18 pence per banana!!

      • Ma Moses
        January 10, 2015

        Interesting. I don’t know where you buy your bananas in London but I checked Tesco website today and their price right now is £1.25/kg, which converts to E.C.$.232/lb, not much more than the E.C.$.2.21/lb I paid at Whitchurch the day before yesterday. And I’m sure you can get better deal at Lidl or Aldi. Check it out.

  4. Titiwi
    January 9, 2015

    No linkage to the treasury of the country and party political funds? Just like there is no linkage between political party funds and a state owned oil company! Thanks for reassuring us because mr. Skerrit surely had me confused there for a minute.

  5. uh huh
    January 8, 2015

    I’m happy that our UWP administration did not come into this economic mess cause is those same labourites that would say is us that bring down the country. Let DLP bring them down to their knees, till their knee caps start to show, then they will turn to our humble United Workers Party Team Dominica to rescue them…and we WILL do our very best to save Dominica.

  6. truth
    January 8, 2015

    charlo, farmers still have bananas in Dominica because they use cooking oil and buy their own fungicides .The spraying cycles by the government is too far apart to control BlackSigatoca . Very little spraying is done,not a lot charlo.There is spray oil lying in the tanks for over two months now.

  7. New slave order
    January 8, 2015

    Dominica COULD be the leader in agriculture in the region. I COULD be proud of my country in this regard. Our leaders COULD be serious about sustainable economic growth, but COULD it be they simply care about their personal economic situation before that of the nation?

  8. concern
    January 8, 2015

    Where is the minister of Agriculture, why is there is no word coming from him. Oh he must be waiting for the PM to give him permission to speak.

    • Shameless
      January 8, 2015

      John-no don’t know anything about banana so how can he speak.

      Assertive, NOT Aggressive! :mrgreen:

    • Anonymous
      January 9, 2015

      There can’t be any word just yet.
      Hartley Henry only interfaces with the PM and not these Ministers. So, they must wait until the PM comes back so he can get a speech from Hartley Henry to read to the Dominica public on this matter. Additionally, it’s also the PM style to duck and then rise up like a knight in shinning armor to save the day when solutions are surfacing. So… you will hear word when these factors permit.

  9. Clayton Shillingford
    January 8, 2015

    This seems a very quick turn around..What happened? Who made the decision to suspend banana exports in the first instance..Where were the members of the Board of Directors Vanoulst Jno Charles and Warrington..Were they party to the decision? And what about major shareholder of WINFRESH, the Dominican Government???.. WERE they also party to the decision

    • Truth be Told
      January 9, 2015

      Clayton Shillingford, I was thinking the same thing about this quick turn around, something is not right! I hope it holds true for the farmers sake because I know from experience one of the hardest things to achieve in international trade, especially with EU related markets like the UK, is the lifting of ban on imports. It is easy to impose ban on imports but you have to go through a lot of hurdles to get that ban lifted. This release by Charles Watty is not in tune with his previous announcement on DNO informing of the ban. In that previous announcement he mentioned several areas to be addressed to meet the Winfresh requirements!? Did that suddenly occur?

  10. Titiwi
    January 8, 2015

    $30,000 for one cycle? man, I bet that is less then the P.M. costs us every month. Have we got our priorities right I’m asking?

  11. 4u2c
    January 8, 2015

    Spend $30,000.00 to make $30 million, where is the comparism? Tell the Government to spend the money. Its for the best interest of the country and its citizen. DLP just lazy and inefficient. DL has is made up of Black Sigatoka..

    • Sean Bardouille
      January 9, 2015

      and don’t forget the Venezuela soldiers who brought all kinds of provisions on a huge army plane in Charles douglas in 2010. the PM gave the ok without the knowledge of the ministry of agriculture… do you remember when all those agricultural officers were standing at the gate of the Venezuelan base and could not enter the premise to examine provisions that was not properly cleaned..

      the sigatoka fungi was brought into dominica by the DLP.

  12. REAL!!!!
    January 8, 2015

    Boss man, Skerrit spent 41,000 EC every hour during the election campaign for 30 days for a total of 30,000,000 dollars.

    This GOVT don’t care about the country….Tie Allu Waist!!!!!

  13. grell
    January 8, 2015

    Watty bull crap Skerrit give you a money to talk trash,you need to stop fooling the poor people of dominica,st.lucia combated the disease ………,spen all this money on election by paying diasporers to come and vote,now he putting you up to talk crap,WATTY GROW SOME BALLS.

  14. Lang Mama
    January 8, 2015

    All you check this out “We have been doing a lot of spraying, but later down this month we should start spraying,” The dude even lying to himself – How is it possible that they have been n doing a lot of spraying but hoping to start later down this month. Zor mi magiii.

    OK fella why not just say well you guys have made a half A$$$ effort at spraying. We know that (1) the people spraying have to wait 3 months for compensation; (2) the government doesn’t have the money for the oil and chemical – that is a fact cause the people spraying have been complaining.

    Stop the lying you bunch of mal papaille

    • BARBED DAWG
      January 8, 2015

      spent some time on that line…

  15. anonymous2
    January 8, 2015

    While I sympathize with the plight of the farmers, the fungicides used for this disease are rather toxic and I would not eat bananas sprayed with this. They need to get the situation under control and wipe out this disease or switch to another crop in the mean time.

    • BEB
      January 9, 2015

      Man, everything now a days have disease, coconut, banana, plantain, tannia, papaya and all citruses . These are the signs of time

  16. CYRIL Volney
    January 8, 2015

    Yet the issues with Black Sigatoka will not have gone away.

  17. anonymous
    January 8, 2015

    how are they going to get a fresh harvest of bananas without the effects of the Black Sigatoka within a week? i would really like to see this achievement. are people this gullible? smh….!

  18. Cyrique
    January 8, 2015

    That’s brilliant news!! Our economy need this boost. Very good start to the New Year for us. God is good!

    • Lang Mama
      January 8, 2015

      Our economy need this boost. How is it a boost sakwais sort. We went from shiping 3 pallets to nothing and now they are saying banana farmers ‘COULD” be back in business by Monday. How can you interprete that as a boost unless os boose la mere. Do you really think that by Monday Black Sigatoka will catch a LIAT flight and Bananas trucks will belined up under the Canefield Cliff and Borrough Square in Portsmouth. SaK wais Koonomoonooo :mrgreen:

  19. My View
    January 8, 2015

    THE GOVERNMENT COULD FIND $35, MILLION DOLLARS TO RUN AND ELECTION AND CANNOT FIND $30,TO CONTROL BLACK SIGATOCA…MARGRE SA..

    • Derick Gonsalves
      January 8, 2015

      Is fools like you that have people looking at ys as dumbinicans. Get it through your thick skull like it or not a political party’s funds has absolutely no linkage to the treasury of a country…when will we stop making foolish comments

      • New slave order
        January 8, 2015

        Good grief. If you are comfortable with a multi-million $$ political party in a country that can’t save its main crop, you are are truly the fool. Politics is just the route to governance; if you are part of the electorate you should be embarrassed, angry, and aghast that someone running for office would be at ease seeing an industry fail while their party thrives.

        It seems we just love politics and politicians in Dominica. Performance isn’t anything!

      • Nac Vibes
        January 8, 2015

        Mr Derick Gonsalves, your misguided loyalty to a bunch of self-serving, incompetent lazy jokers, clearly blinds you to the irony of a sitting government (if you can call them that) who cares more about raising money for it’s own survival befor that of it’s people, who like yourself, are dragged along the yellow brick road to pay homage to the great wizard of Vieille Case.

        I don’t know but, maybe if were to exercise the grey matter within your cranium more vigorously, you would agree that while there is a difference between the finances of the party and that of the state, the elected officials swore an oath to put the well being of the country befor all else.

      • Lang Mama
        January 8, 2015

        Our passport money. Also the government IPO all from the treasury

      • The Facts
        January 8, 2015

        This is all some of them state on this Website, a lot of crap; they make no sense. Their comments speak for themselves, what is in their brain. They have the nerve to criticize and call others stupid.

      • anonymous
        January 9, 2015

        it’s people like yourself “Derick Gonsalves”, who are making a fool of yourself and dragging other Dominicans who do not understand how things work to the drain with your ignorance. Government ought to create and or find projects in order to keep the society running in which part they also ought to seek funding and or markets for produce. why do you think we have bilateral agreements and m.o.u’s? inform yourself before you go bashing people.

      • January 9, 2015

        Most of us with a modicum of common sense know that a lot of that money came from the selling of our passports to unscrupulous individuals. A passport can sometimes cost as much as $US2,000.000
        This money belongs to all Dominicans and should be lodged in our treasury.
        Sa kwe sorte. Why don’t some of you guys who come on DNO do some self edification before you open your darn mouth. It is really disturbing to see such ignorance being continuously displayed because it is people like you who reelect these bunch of thieves and incompetents.
        All of you going round wearing T shirts declaring Labour Ka Twavie and you have no jobs, no prospects of getting any job. Just cruise round St. Joseph and see the number of young men idle yet they vote back that idiotic party back in power. I take that back they won because of all the voters that were illegally brought down to vote. Dominicans are the most stupid people on this planet

    • anonymous2
      January 9, 2015

      DLP was funded by the IMF not the govt. of DA.

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