By Darcel Choy Thursday, September 2 2010

When one takes a stroll in the market in search of fruits, the ones that are prominent on the stalls are apples, grapes, pears and apricots.

Citizens have expressed great concern that they no longer see their favourite local fruits on the market including mangoes, pomeracs, ceries, star apples, sapodillas, pommecythere, limes, lemons, passion fruit and avocados.

One shopper on Charlotte Street said she realised that local fruits were not in abundance for a while now.

“I have been looking for sapodilla and ceries for a long time now and it is nowhere to be seen, I used to enjoy that as a child growing up and it is too sad that I can’t even find one at least, all I am seeing now is grapes, apples and plums,” she said.

Another shopper, who gave her name as Elsa, said she wondered what was happening when she saw mangoes were not as plentiful as they used to be in previous years.

“Most of the stalls on Charlotte Street used to be filled with mangoes during its season but it was only a few that had them and some of them were so expensive. Even with avocados this year, you barely saw any, and if you saw them, they were so small and also expensive. We really suffered this year to get our local foods,” she said.

Education and Research Officer of the National Food Crop Farmers Association, (NFCFA) Norris Deonarine, said the harsh dry season experienced earlier in the year really affected the production levels of the country’s local fruits.

“A lot of crops were destroyed as there were a lot of bush fires all over the country, in addition to no rainfall, some of the trees were not able to recover from those conditions so their production levels would be lower than usual. Right now, in term of oranges, and grapefruits they are not as abundant as they should be, it is not as plentiful as it should be,” he said.

He also believed, the country’s fruit industry started to really decline when Caroni 1975 Limited was shut down.

“There used to be a big production in citrus both in orange and grapefruit along Todds Road, since the closure, the orchards on that estate have not been maintained and the project has not been picked up and it is unfortunate. We used to export orange and grapefruit juice, this is why we have been calling for the revitalisation of the agriculture sector,” he said.

Deonarine said Government needs to put in place certain initiatives in order to revive the fruit industry as it was important to reduce the country’s already large food import bill.

“It is abundant timing that we really put our fruits and indigenous fruits, we need to put these things in a perspective and do what is necessary now, so we could improve the sector. We should have been able to import mangoes and other fruits as well. We need to look at our situation critically as to how it is we are going to approach these things,” he said.

He said it was unfortunate that the younger generation is only exposed to foreign fruits including apples and grapes.

“That should not be at all, our country is blessed with fertile soil and exotic fruits, I just hope something is done so we can restart appreciating what is ours and help it to become a thriving industry once more,” Deonarine said.

Dhano Sookhoo, president of the Agricultural Society said although the fruit crops have had a difficult year, the decline in production has been occurring for several years.

“Over the years, since the closure of Caroni 1975 Limited, we have seen a decline in the production of our local fruits, mainly our citrus, from grapefruit to oranges, we have not been able to produce the large quantity that we did before and it is really unfortunate.

“The governments in the past never really focused on improving the agriculture sector, they did things without looking at the long term effects on the economy, imagine we import almost everything we consume now and that shouldn’t be,” he said.

Recently, Food Production Minister Vasant Bharath announced the ministry was going to take crucial steps in reviving the country’s industry. At a meeting with farmers, Bharath lamented how TT now imports grapefruit, after exporting one million crates in 1975.

Deonarine said besides grapefruit, the country was a big exporter of pineapples. He said in the past, the country exported 20,000 pineapples to Barbados but that has also been on the decline.

“In the Tableland area, the farmers are trying to revive that industry as well, they recently were able to build 27 roads for themselves, something they have been begging for over 30 years. The present administration should try to create viability and sustainability within the sector.

“We look forward to working together with the government to get this sector back on track but we know it is going to take some time. The local fruits industry is something that cannot be turned around in a couple weeks or months, for the country to see a great turnaround, it is going to take a few years but the government is on the right track so I am confident that we can see this country’s fruit industry be revived,” he said.