BELIZE banana industry suffers 50% losses in the plantations due to wind damage.

TWO NIGHTS OF RAIN, LIGHTENING AND WIND STORMS WIPE OUT HALF THE BELIZE BANANA CROP.

The weather gave the banana industry a bad time. It will take 9 months to cleanup and replant the crop damage. The banana farmers are finding it hard to generate cash flow. Most of their crop is shipped to Ireland and the UK for the Fyfes company. This company has the pickup, reefer cargo needed for ocean shipping, for what is a very sensitive perishable crop.

Two nights of weather built up, over the mountain range, that divides the border between Honduras and Guatemala. Most of the time, these local conditions, create heavy lightening storms and thunder with high localized winds. They usually drift across Lake Izabel and up into the Peten region of Guatemala. This time, the wind and weather direction was more Easterly and the weather came up the last two nights, half way through the country of Belize. This covered all the banana plantations, both large and small. We are talking losses of millions of dollars.

Weather is the dominant feature effecting banana growing operations. The area of the plantations had been fighting a drought for a long time, and irrigation costs had been 4 times higher this year anyway. The banana industry had been struggling from the time of Hurricane Iris some years ago. Right now cash flow is not enough to cover labor costs and re-planting, so the banana growers association will be seeking soft loans to help them get back on their feet. Time needed about 9 months.