Banana growers on verge of collapse
Mao, Dominican Republic.- Banana grower Rafael Sosa on Wed. warned that the country could lose its international banana market in the coming months if the urgent measures aren’t taken to recover thousands of hectares flooded by the recent hurricanes.
Speaking for the Northwest banana producers, Sosa said that from some 340,000 boxes of bananas exported per week, the figue fell to around 228,000. “And the pity of the case is that we don’t have an immediate solution to our problems, everything has stayed in promises and more promises.”
The agro leader, speaking at a meeting hosted by the National Agricultural Producers Federation, said the Northwest ‘s banana production sustained major damage, since it was barely recovering from last year’s floods, “when first Irma and then Maria arrived, finished ruining everything.”
“The producers donot want things given to us, we want definitive solutions, and those solutions to the floods are the construction of the dams at Amina, on the Guayubín river and even at Cana Chapetón,” Sosa said, quoted by diariolibre.com.