Business news. Winfresh (UK) Ltd, the fruit importer and distributor, has suspended the purchase of bananas from Dominica.
President of the National Fair Trade Organization (NFTA), Charles Watty, says this is because of the quality of the fruit being shipped from the island.
Watty told the CMC that over the past few weeks, Winfresh has been concerned about the quality of the fruit and the fact that Dominica does not have a proper management of the Black Sigatoka, a leaf-spot disease of banana plants caused by the ascomycete fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis.
“As a result of that you have uneven ripening of the fruits. So as a result of that during the course of December, Winfresh has suspended all the core farmers of Dominica …and as a result you only find yourself shipping just about roughly two pallets of bananas,” Watty explained.
“But we have been working with the officials from Winfresh on the ground in Dominica to get these farmers reinstated at the earliest possible opportunity,” he said. Black Sigatoka was first detected in Dominica in July, 2012 and since then the ministry of agriculture, through its Plant Protection and Quarantine services, has been fighting an uphill battle to manage the disease. Article courtesy www.dominicanewsonline.com
