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Here's his report:

Jim McFadzean Reporting

Whether from an aerial view or an onsite inspection, the devastation on the ground is real, and it is widespread. Thousands of trees uprooted during a 48 hour period. Wind gusts estimated at between 40 to 50 miles per hour decimated the network of plantations nestled between the South Stann Creek and Bladen Rivers.

Eugene Zabaneh - Chief Financial Officer, BBGA
"Last night has been the 2nd night of storms that we've had in the banana belt, and the first night, it wasn't that bad. I think we suffered, as an industry, anywhere between 8-10%. Now, last night was very severe, and as you all can see, the extent of the damage on some farms was as much as much as 80%., and I'd say, industry-wise, anywhere between 50-60%."

None of the industry's 24 plantations was spared.

Jim McFadzean
"What has your inspection, so far, has shown in terms of loss?"

Phil Castenadas - Banana Grower
"The first damage was about 30. I think the second damage went up to 40% of my losses."

Jim McFadzean
"How do you plan on recovering from this loss?"

Phil Castenadas
"The only plan right now is that I have to look for finance because it will cost me approximately between $5,000 - $7,000 per acre to recover that, which includes fertilizer, nematicides, agricultural practices meaning, herbiciding, pruning, de-leafing, aerial spraying. It will take me about 6 months will take me before I start to bag, and 3 months later to start to get back my production. So I need about 9 months more to recover all my losses."

Not since Hurricane Iris in 2001 has the industry been dealt such a severe blow. The question now, is who to run to? With me right now is the Chairman of the Belize Banana Growers Association, Mr. Tony Zabaneh."

Jim McFadzean
"Mr Zabaneh, how do you recover from this type of devastation? Who do you turn to?"

Tony Zabaneh - Chairman, Belize Banana Growers Association
"Well, since Iris, we were promised by everybody - all the stake-holders, Government, the banks, Fyffes - go ahead, put it back as best as you can, and all of us will come in and help. Not one of the sources helped. Everyone of us had to go to the banks, borrow money, and even so, some of us are still not out of those debts yet. This blow has really put some of our growers on their bending knees, even myself, as I must say, because I think that my farm was one of the best farms in the industry. And right now, it's fully - I would say fully - 100% on the ground."

Jim McFadzean
"Have you all decided some possibilities - international funding - or are you going to stick to local source for funding?"

Tony Zabaneh
"Well, we haven't really sat down as an association yet. You all came this morning to really see the damage and assess it, and we are going back into a meeting as we have lunch. And after that meeting, we will decide who to turn to. But our sole source of funding has been the social security who has loaned us some monies, and we are still outstanding to them, but we are paying them on a weekly basis, $25,000, and on a monthly basis, $100,000 to reduce the loan."

Jim McFadzean
"With that in mind, do you think that Social Security will be receptive, the fact that you still owe something around $5 million dollars?"

Tony Zabaneh
"Um, Yes and No. It's possiblly yes because they industry, as you see it, is a good income earner for Government. It brings in $40 - $45 million US on a yearly basis. And with that, we can pay them."

The cleaning up has already started, but the recovery is expected to be a long, drawn - out process.

Jim McFadzean
"I'm assuming that part of the process will by trying to rescue and save what's considered the daughter plant. Am I right?"

Eccleston Irving - Managing Dir., Riversdale Dev. Ltd.
"Well, that's what they are going to try and do, but what we are seeing here is that when it drops down totally, we're going to have to cancel out that part totally."

Elroy Foreman - Manager, Delta Pride Ltd.
"What we have here is they production unit has been interrupted. Banana plants usually consist of a mother, daughter, and a granddaughter plant. And here, the mother has fallen, so this daughter plant, we cannot continue with it. We cannot continue any further with this. We will have to uproot it, and a do a new plant."

Jim McFadzean
"So this is a loss, this instance?"

Elroy Forman
"Yes, this is a loss. In this scenario, we still have connection with mother plan, so this one, yes we can move forward with this. We have connection, the production unit has not been totally interrupted, and we have translocation of nutrients to this one, so yes, we will just apply fertilizer and continue the normal agronomic practices on this one. We'll continue with it."

Like the citrus and sugar cane industries, the BGA is cash strapped after facing the devastating floods of last year, and one of the country's worst droughts in history, this year!

Eugene Zabaneh
"This year, we suffered one of the worst droughts in modern history, and it took a heavy toll on our production, and our plants. We had to spend three times as much we would normally spend for our irrigation, for that specific period."

The damage is estimated to be in the millions, anywhere from five to ten million US dollars! And, with no warnings coming from Mother Nature, the devastation wreaked on all 24 of the country's banana plantations is certain to prove a major setback for this fragile industry.

The Banana industry employs more than 3,000 people of whom an estimated 2,000 are expected to be directly affected in the form of layoffs and/or a reduction in wages and working hours.