31st January 2012
Green Gold’s Darker Days

A little over a week ago, I ran into a good friend of mine, Andrew Brown. I refer to him as my friend because, despite giving me one of my first jobs some twenty years ago, he taught me the value of hard work. I was a teenager at the time and, having no experience in the business of banana production, did my best to adapt to my $20 per day trade.
Andrew, whom I estimate should now be in his early sixties, is a principled and hardworking man. For the six months I worked on his banana fields at Barre Denis, Chopin and Roseau, Andrew and his wife (her name slips me now) treated me like family. Despite my initial awkwardness at trimming the banana trees and deflowering the budding bunches of bananas, they both seemed understanding. Maybe my willingness to learn the rigors of the job was obvious to them.
I worked seven days a week, earning $140 weekly. Those paychecks were crucial in helping my mom pay household bills and, in many ways, gave me a sense of independence. It was hard work but I was especially delighted by the mid-week trips at night when I would accompany Andrew to the Geest banana shed in Castries to sell his bananas. The snaking line of banana-laden pickup trucks along the La Toc Road still conjures up some of the best poetic images I cherish.
Pretty soon, I got another job and my days of carrying heavy trays of bananas on hot harvesting days came to an end. I thanked Andrew and his wife for the opportunity to work for them. About two years ago, I ran into them and told them I was now a reporter. They seemed delighted.
Over the past twenty years, the local banana industry has gone through some major periods of turbulence. The former St. Lucia Banana Growers Association is no more and the industry is now privatized. Natural and man-made disasters have since made a mess of an industry that was once the leading sector of our local economy. Even globalization took a low blow at our green gold that was once a symbol of our national identity. And then there was the Black Sigatoka disease.
Since landing here some three years ago, the dreaded disease seems intent on doing just what previous disasters couldn’t. Farmers whose spirits were strong enough to continue the tasking ritual despite those fierce hurricane winds or stifling production costs, are now dispirited. The black, yellow and brown banana leaves on former fields of dreams now seem a death knell for Cavendish bananas.
But back to Andrew. My chance meeting with Andrew a few days ago was as oxymoronic as the future of bananas. On one hand, our recent chance meeting occurred at a Master Class session hosted at the Union Agricultural Station. The feature speaker was Chief Executive Officer of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, Justin King. King was in Saint Lucia to reassure government and banana sector stakeholders that his company remains committed to continuing their fifty-two-year-old business relationship. Sainsbury’s is the principal customer for Windward Islands’ 100% fair trade bananas. I felt Andrew needed to hear that sort of news from King.