PORT MARIA, St Mary – Just months after Jamaica resumed the export of bananas, following the devastation of the industry by Hurricane Ivan last September, and just when production was approaching pre-Ivan figures, the sector has suffered yet another setback following Thursday’s passage of Hurricane Dennis.

According to agriculture minister Roger Clarke, although the full extent of damage to the agriculture sector is yet to be fully determined, banana exports would definitely be affected.

“There are areas where the damage has been as much as 100 per cent, like in the Rio Grande Valley and the other areas. St Thomas, St Mary bananas – they have all gotten substantial damage. I hear some as high as 70 per cent in some instances,” said Clarke Friday.

“So for bananas, it is again devastating in that area and this is again another major setback.”

Jamaica Producers, the top banana producer and owner of St Mary Banana Estates and Eastern Banana in St Thomas, says domestic supply will not be severely affected.

“The market won’t be short of fruits like after Ivan,” said Nadav Goren, JP regional manager.

According to Goren, most of the plants fell after 3:00 pm Thursday when the winds picked up.

Dennis wreaked damage on the banana fields of “most farmers” in the Woodpark, Pembroke Hall Valley and Ramble areas, which were just recovering from hurricane Ivan, according to Jason James, the councillor for the Gayle division in St Mary.

Mayor of Port Maria Robert Montague said preliminary estimates put the crop damage for St Mary bananas at around 50 to 60 per cent.

“It is not as bad as we had anticipated, but (it is) very bad,” said Montague.

Harry Douglas, south east St Mary Member of Parliament, agreed that the damage was not as bad as anticipated but said “some of the bearing fruits were lost.”

Jamaica avoided a direct hit by Hurricane Dennis on Thursday, but the island’s eastern region, popular especially for its banana and coffee production, was lashed with gale force winds and heavy showers that left several communities flooded, and some marooned.

Clarke said some areas in the east were still inaccessible, preventing a full assessment of damage to crops.

He indicated that, from preliminary estimates, banana would have suffered the worst damage, but coffee was also badly affected with reports of plants taking a battering from the hurricane strength winds.

In Cedar Valley, St Thomas, the Moy Hall coffee factory reportedly suffered some structural damage.

There is still fear among some farmers that the continual heavy rainfall may wreak havoc on other crops, especially vegetables.

There is also concern among the aquaculture sector that the rains may cause the fish ponds to overflow resulting in fish escaping from the farms.

The poultry sector, however, came through the hurricane relatively unscathed, with processing resuming Friday morning by the two major producers.

There were no reports of damage to stock from the large farmers, the agriculture minister said, which suggested that if there were losses it would have occurred among the smaller chicken farmers.

However, Clarke indicated that there might be a fall-off in egg production as the weather might have put stress on the layers.

There were also reports of damage to coconut and cocoa cultivation in St Mary, however the extent of the damage is still uncertain.

“Overall, there has been some damage but not to the extent of what happened with Ivan, Clarke said.

“Overall, I must say we were spared the full brunt of the hurricane and we have to be thankful for small mercies. It could have been much worse,” said the agriculture minister.

A monetary estimate of the damage to the agriculture sector is not expected before early next week.

gilchristc@jamaicaobserver.com