Shal­iza Has­sanali

Agro-proces­sors in Trinidad have been left with a sour taste in their mouths due to high prices and a short­age of cit­rus on the mar­ket.Don Fletch­er, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Me­ico Ltd, which pro­duces fresh fruit drinks un­der the name Bare Fruit Fresh Fruit Drinks, said his busi­ness has not been op­er­at­ing at its op­ti­mum as he strug­gles dai­ly to source limes, or­anges, por­tu­gals and grape­fruits for bot­tled juices.

Fletch­er said that ob­tain­ing lo­cal­ly-pro­duced fruits, in par­tic­u­lar cit­rus, has been an on­go­ing prob­lem for sev­er­al months.While the de­mand for cit­rus is high, Fletch­er said sup­plies had reached an all-time low due to a num­ber of fac­tors; the key be­ing the clo­sure of Ca­roni 1975 Ltd, once the largest pro­duc­ers of cit­rus.

A vis­it to sev­er­al fruit stalls in Port-of-Spain on Fri­day showed that large or­anges were be­ing sold at $3, while small ones were priced at $2.On bustling Char­lotte Street, limes were priced at four for $10, while five small grape­fruits were be­ing sold for $10.Fletch­er ex­plained that the Gov­ern­ment had al­lo­cat­ed lands at Todd's Road in Cen­tral for cit­rus farm­ers but this was plagued by a num­ber of prob­lems.

Last year, the farm­ers who were grant­ed leas­es to a 1,200-acre cit­rus es­tate had asked the State for a re­duc­tion in the an­nu­al rental fee of $1,000 per acre for 30 years.

Re­vi­talise cit­rus in­dus­try

Fletch­er said there was need to re­vi­talise the cit­rus in­dus­try, stat­ing that he was un­sure if the Min­istry of Food Pro­duc­tion had a plan."I have found my­self in a bind."Though there is a high de­mand in the Caribbean, South Flori­da, New York, Toron­to and At­lanta for the 15 flavours of bot­tled juices which Fletch­er sells, he said he has not been able to ex­port due to se­vere con­straints.

"We have seen a mar­ket niche that we can fill. How­ev­er, we are try­ing to stim­u­late or own farmer base through con­tracts but it's re­al­ly dif­fi­cult to keep on go­ing like this."Man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Just Juiced, De­bra Cum­ber­batch, who man­u­fac­tures nat­ur­al fresh juices, said the prob­lem was sig­nif­i­cant­ly af­fect­ing her busi­ness.She said plant quar­an­tine and the min­istry need to iden­ti­fy coun­tries that would al­low agro proces­sors to im­port fruits when there is a short­age or not in sea­son.

Cum­ber­batch said she had put in a re­quest to im­port cit­rus sev­er­al months ago, but was turned down."That will solve the prob­lem."Fruits in Trinidad, Cum­ber­batch stat­ed, was far too ex­pen­sive when com­pared to coun­tries such as Be­lize.She said an or­ange was be­ing sold at al­most the same price of an im­port­ed ap­ple, which sold three for $10.Ex­port of her drinks, Cum­ber­batch said, has dropped to ze­ro since Jan­u­ary.

Dai­ly she re­quires 40,000 to 50,000 or­anges, grape­fruits and limes, but ob­tains 5,000 at the whole­sale mar­kets and from peo­ple who own pri­vate farms.

Ven­dor: Prices high but­peo­ple still buy­ing

Queen Street ven­dor Jensen Ba­hal said the price hike was as a re­sult of last year's bad crop."Even though the prices gone up peo­ple still buy­ing. That is Tri­nis by na­ture."An­oth­er ven­dor blamed the scarci­ty on the ris­ing prices.Con­sumer Gail George said while the Gov­ern­ment had re­duced VAT on some food items, clos­er at­ten­tion needs to be paid on the in­cre­men­tal in­creas­es.

"We need to see more lo­cal fruits on the mar­ket."Pe­ter Cox said he con­sumed fruits dai­ly and even if the prices con­tin­ue to soar he would still buy.

Black mar­ket prices

One agro-proces­sor blamed pri­vate es­tate own­ers for con­trol­ling the cit­rus mar­ket."It is high­way rob­bery if you ask me."The busi­ness­man said he pays $1.50 to $2 for an or­ange at the whole­sale mar­ket."If there is a rush for the cit­rus the price would es­ca­late. It is eas­i­ly gob­bled up. In some in­stances you have to pay black mar­ket prices. It is a war for fruits. This would ob­vi­ous­ly leave a sour taste in our mouths."

Por­tu­gals, when in sea­son, the busi­ness­man ex­plained, was sold for $2 and $3 for one, de­pend­ing on the size.Pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Food­crop Farm­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion Ter­rence Hay­wood said some farm­ers have been wait­ing two years for cit­rus plants at gov­ern­ment farms."What is crip­pling the in­dus­try is that farm­ers and agro-proces­sors are un­able to im­port fruits to keep them op­er­a­tional. How can you re­vamp an in­dus­try with no plants avail­able to farm­ers? This is­sue has been on­go­ing far too long."

Hay­wood said the as­so­ci­a­tion at its next meet­ing will dis­cuss the is­sue and come up with some so­lu­tions."We have been re­ceiv­ing com­plaints from farm­ers and con­sumers alike."

Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter: I will­com­ment next week

De­spite for­ward­ing a list of ques­tions to Food Pro­duc­tion Min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj on Thurs­day, Ma­haraj said, when con­tact­ed on Fri­day, he would com­ment on the mat­ter next week.

Old prices Cur­rent prices

(per lb)

Ba­nanas $5 $6 to $7

Red grapes $15 $20

Paw paw $5 $6

Pineap­ple $6 $7 to $8

Mel­on $3 $4