Banana farmers here have been urged to take steps to address banana quality concerns coming from the United Kingdom or face the possibility of the country suffering losses as a result.
The call for improved quality has been made by Coordinator of the National Fair Trade organization Amos Wiltshire, who wants producers of the fruit to be aware of the damage that could be caused to the industry if they don’t act promptly to redress the problem.
The farmers are being told that toads, dragon flies and other foreign contaminants are being found in Dominica’s exported bananas.
Officials say the UK has expressed concerns about the matter, and if not addressed the problem could affect Dominica’s shipment of bananas to the United Kingdom.
Wiltshire told Dominica News Online that the matter is more serious than many people think.
“This is damaging our image on the market because the banana from our island and the Windward Islands is what people are asking for”.
“We conducted several campaigns in the UK so people are aware of our product. However now it seems we have a problem. We need to get that problem out of the way,” he said.
Wiltshire said Dominica has been losing out on the UK market for several years as a result of low production, and warned that farm husbandry practices and packaging are among areas that require attention.
Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.
We will delete comments that:
See our full comment/user policy/agreement.