Tissue culture banana success means more exports for Dominica

DOMINICA:  The Hon Minister for Agriculture, Johnson Drigo, is optimistic about the export potential of bananas, after visiting the farm of commercial banana farmer, Deles Warrington, on Saturday, 9^th April.
The Minister was proud to remind critics that Government had done research on the Black Sigatoka disease in neighbouring islands, and the findings of that research led to the importation of the Cavendish banana plantlets last year.
The Hon Minister reports that currently, Antigua is one of Dominica’s major markets, but there are plans to expand.
“We are in the process of preparing for export to Barbados in containers and that will include bananas as well. We have quite a number of traditional exporters of bananas to the island of St. Martin, St. Thomas and St. Kitts. We will sustain these markets because we saw this week that Fair Trade has exported over 1500 boxes of bananas to their traditional market source,” he said.
Hon Drigo explained however, that things must be done in stages. He said Dominica must first meet regional demands.
“Dominica should begin by doing food safety, then meeting our regional market demands, and hopefully if we sustain the industry like we are doing today we will get back on the European market.”
He addressed the change in the weather forecast for the dry season.
“The intermittent rain that we are getting now is very good for the industry because we anticipated a very dry season, but thank God we are getting some rain.  When it is raining the bananas mature faster and the fields look better.”