Banana growers wait for help

[NewsWhore]

Banana growers in the northwestern Cibao Valley between Santiago to Montecristi are waiting for the government assistance that they were promised following the floods caused by Tropical Storms Noel and Olga. The disastrous release of water from the Tavera Dam was seen as the major contributor to the loss of the area's most profitable crop. The president of the Dominican Banana Growers Association (Adobanano), Eddy Cabrera, told reporters that on 28 January he saw a notice in the papers that said that the banana growers had not completed the necessary paperwork for the approval of the new RD$400 million loan. Cabrera stated that the association had filed the paperwork with the Agricultural Bank on time. According to Cabrera, the loan was due to special circumstances, including three floods and seven tornadoes in one of the country's principal farming regions. After the flooding caused by the opening of the Tavera Dam floodgates, banana exports fell by 50%, which in economic terms means a loss of US$30 million. The association reported that 78,000 tareas of land (a little over 3,000 hectares) were affected by the floodwaters. One particularly worrying consequence of the flooding is that the Dominican Republic had become a leading supplier of organic bananas to the European market, but with the loss of the crop, buyers are seeking other suppliers.

More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)