Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority Acting Director General Wayne Hunter highlights a point during a press conference at the authority’s head office in Kingston on Monday.
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Coffee takes $200-m hit from Hurricane Beryl

THE agricultural commodities sector suffered losses estimated at $300 million during Hurricane Beryl’s passage on July 3, the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA) said Monday.

JACRA has regulatory oversight for the coffee, cocoa, coconut, pimento, ginger, turmeric, and nutmeg industries.

However, the authority’s acting director general, Wayne Hunter, said the losses, which mainly impacted coffee and pimento crops, will not affect consumers on a widescale.
 

“If you want some pimento for some porridge or some soup it is available on the market. Consumers will have [the commodities they require]… And just as Prime Minister [Andrew Holness] said, if you see any price gouging, let us know, because there is no lack of demand for the commodities at this time,” Hunter said  during a press conference at JACRA’s Willie Henry Drive head office in Kingston on Monday.

Hunter, who said the figures are based on a preliminary assessment of the hurricane’s impact on the commodities sector, said that apart from 60 per cent damage to coffee farms and farming infrastructure amounting to $200 million in losses and the 50 per cent damage to pimento crops totalling $22 million, the other crops had minimal damage.

The cocoa crop sustained 40 per cent damage, with revenue loss of $3.5 million; nutmeg 20 per cent damage and $1 million in losses; turmeric and ginger farms sustained 20 per cent damage with a total loss of $40 million. In terms of coconut, JACRA said that farmers suffered minor damage, but pointed out that assessment of the hurricane’s impact continues.

Senior director for coffee at JACRA Patrick Pitterson further explained that the stage the crops were at, when Hurricane Beryl passed, “made the difference”.

“For ginger and turmeric, those would have been harvested already, and we just started planting material for the crops, so little impact would be on those as it relates to the consumers. [In terms of] cocoa, probably only St Thomas had some reaping going on at the time…Cocoa was basically coming through the spring and just started flowering because they would have finished, the fall crop. So, most of the crop would’ve been off… so the product for the consumer would have already been in processing,” he said.

He noted as well that the routine harvesting period of November/December will be the same for the ginger and turmeric crops, despite the damage sustained, as work is done to improve the plants’ nutrient status and bring them back to production.

“The reaping period will be the same. We are now preparing the land and planting. So those crops are not impacted significantly. So it would’ve just been those farmers that would have pre-empted and planted like January/February and would have had shoots up. So the harvesting period would be the same,” he said.

In the meantime, the acting director general said JACRA will be putting a programme in place to assist commodity farmers to rebound.

“I know that coffee, cocoa, and pimento farmers are asking how JACRA will be able to assist them in one way or another. We completed last week our preliminary [assessment]. Now, we are looking at how… we are going to provide inputs such as fertilisers or chemicals, or even planting materials to help our farmers to get back [on their feet].”

“We have checked our inventory and we have pimento seedlings which are ready and available for distribution. We also have cocoa that is also ready for distribution. So we will work with our [field advisory] officers to ensure that a programme is developed, so that we [know] who we are supporting. We want to ensure that whenever we distribute planting materials or anything, be it fertiliser or chemicals, that those recipients are legitimate farmers. That will come through our farmers’ registration programme. So it will not be done arbitrarily,” he added.

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