Hurricane Earl has caused losses of over $100 million to Belize's agriculture, according to Jose Alpuche, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture.
“What we have right now indicates $100 million worth of damage, because when we factor in the main affected subsectors – bananas, corn, and vegetables—corn, as I had said, was in the region of $49 million worth of losses, bananas will probably be within the region of about $40 million, and the rest takes us over $100 million in damages,” Alpuche said.
This is bad news, especially against the backdrop of reports from the Statistical Institute of Belize which indicated that Belize’s main export sectors—which include banana—have been contracting.
He noted that to date there is no estimated dollar figure for citrus. He told news site Amandala that there were reports of fruit drops from the wind and the reports vary quite a bit.
Furthermore, there are some reports that grapefruit was more affected than oranges. Citrus loses have yet to be factored in to the total tally, Alpuche indicated.
Source: amandala.com.bz