In 2015 and part of 2016, a prolonged drought affected the banana plantations of the Northwest Line. Then, the production was affected by constant rains associated with storms and cyclones that worsened at the end of 2017, which caused large floods that damaged the farms. Since they were not sure they could guarantee having their production in time, Dominican farmers had difficulties making commitments to export, especially to Europe, where they have gained a part of the market.
The variation in the Dominican Republic's banana export's revenue reflects the ups and downs that the sector has faced. In 2013 banana exports amounted to US $64.8 million and the following year they amounted to US $105.4 million. Then, exports decreased to US $92.1 million in 2015, went up again to US $102.7 million in 2016, and fell to US $85.1 million in 2017, according to data from the General Directorate of Customs (DGA).
The damages of the floods left by the rains associated with hurricanes, such as Irma and Maria, forced producers to replenish their plantations.
"The problem is that the area that were replanted because of the damage that María caused to the sector have already started yielding production and we have no where to place it," said Salvador Estevez, the president of the Dominican Association of Banana Producers (Adobanano), which brings together some 1,600 farmers who grow around 18,800 to 22,000 tasks in Azua and in the provinces of the Northeast Line.
According to Estevez, the production arrives at a time when children are out of school, other fruits have a strong presence in the nations to which the Dominican Republic exports this fruit, and many European citizens leave their countries for a while on vacations.
"This production arrived but we have no export contracts and there is no possibility of renegotiating contracts until November," he said.
As a result, the management of Danilo Medina started, through the Ministry of Agriculture, a banana purchase program of the surplus in the market.
"We used to export 18 weekly containers to Europe and are now exporting 4 containers per week, a few weeks ago we were only exporting 3," said Miguel Tatem, the president of the Monte De Sion Agricultural Association (Asamsi), which groups 57 producers with more than 440 hectares.
The effects of atmospheric phenomena have been aggravated, he said, by the destruction of the forest layer in the upper part of the Yaque del Norte basin, and by the erosion of soils that lost their water retention capacity and the sedimentation of the river bed that is born in the area of Pico Duarte and, in its displacement to the Atlantic, which sustains the productivity of 37 municipalities in the provinces of La Vega, Santiago, Valverde, Santiago Rodriguez, Dajabon, and Montecristi.
"Cyclones bring a lot of water, our dams are sedimented and our mountains are deforested. As a result, the water doesn't go down in one or two weeks, but in two or three hours. The dams do not hold it. In addition, the Yaque del Norte river is very sedimented. In some areas it has 14 meters of sedimentation, so it has no depth," stated Tatem, an agronomist that specializes in Agricultural Economics.
Environmental degradation
"There is no possibility of having healthy agriculture in the plains if the mountains are deforested," stated Luis Carvajal, an environmentalist of the Environmental Commission of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and the Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic.
"The hydrological regime -he added- is strongly regulated by the state of the forest in a basin. The soils' ability to infiltrate and retain moisture is directly proportional to the vegetation cover and the litter it generates. When you have a naked basin, the water that falls drops rapidly in a torrential manner and manifests itself as flood of water immediately."
Miguel Tatem agrees with Carvajal. He says that even though the Yaque and the Mao have dams, the Northwest Zone requires controlling the floods caused by rivers such as the Amina. "The three great rivers, Amina, Guayubin, and Guayubincito join the Yaque del Norte river which already comes with the Jimenoa," he says. "We have to dredge the Yaque del Norte river, at least from Castañuelas, but with the technical procedures, everybody knows that," he added.
Carvajal, on the other hand, insists that the problem is the deforestation there is in the entire Yaque del Norte basin. "The problem is that the water that, instead of being infiltrated and slowly being added to the river's bank, isjoining the river immediately, and then we don't have that water for the moments of drought." "Therefore, the state of the forest not only contributes to condensation catchment, but also as a time lag between when the water enters the basin and when it leaves it," he said.
"The water, which should have taken three, four, five, six months, or a year to join the lower basin, can join it in hours or minutes, depending on the condition of the basin," he added. "In addition, the water would have been filled with nutrients that are the base for the crops to develop, if the forest's conditions were better. However, due to deforestation, it fills the basin with fine sediments and hinders the crop's nutrition."
Losses
The Government promised to buy, for a month and a half, about 120 containers a week of the export surplus, at a price of RD $175 per quintal. Producers see this as a palliative, and calculate that they will have big losses.
Tatem said that the government was paying for the banana that was demanded and had already been cleaned, while a private buyer, which only paid RD $100 per quintal, had to cut the fruit and place it in trucks of up to 200 quintals.
"That's 175 pesos per quintal of exportable bananas in a truck, but when we sell 18.14 kilos, i.e. 40 pounds, we get US $9.60," he said.
This means that a quintal of bananas for export could be sold at US $24.00, which at an exchange rate of RD $49.50 per dollar would amount to RD $1,188; thus, producers are losing more than RD $1,000 when they don't export to Europe.
Source: eldinero.com.do