Ashford W. Meikle, Staff Reporter
THE MAJOR players in the coffee industry are trying to help it recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Ivan.
"The industry is going to suffer a reduction in earnings due to the loss of harvestable berries, loss of productive acreage and disruption of the plant productive cycle and the bean quality will be lower than expected," said Graham Dunkley, director general of the Coffee board in an interview with Wednesday Business.
Since the hurricane, the board has been quite visible in its damage assessment as well as providing technical advice to the farmers. Inspectors have been sent out into the field and the board has engaged in a public education campaign through fliers. While he was not able to give a dollar amount of the losses, the director-general said about 45 per cent of the crop was blown off the trees.
In the agriculture sector, coffee is the second largest earner of foreign exchange behind sugar. It is also the fastest growing sub-sector and has been for the last seven to 10 years. Prior to Hurricane Ivan, coffee generated revenues of approximately US$45 million yearly.
ASSISTANCE
Unlike the situation after Hurricane Gilbert 16 years ago, most of the island's 26,000 coffee farmers will get some form of assistance because of coverage under the Crop Insurance Scheme of 2004. Insurance for the crop has been provided since 1992.
"Right now we are in the process of taking in claims," Mr. Dunkley told Wednesday Business. "We have about 1,800 claims but we know that there are claims out in the field." These claims, he said, would be submitted to the Coffee Claims Unit. The deadline for the submission of the claims was September 30. After the claims period has been completed the loss adjustment process will then commence. The board's re-insurers are Munich Re, the largest in the world.
The greatest challenge facing the coffee farmers now is to have a restoration of the parochial roads which have been damaged by the hurricane and make transporting the crop almost impossible. Additionally, it creates a financial burden on the small farmers who have to employ tractors to remove the debris as well as heavy-duty trucks for transporting the berries to the factory.
