Category 5 Hurricane Melissa that swiped Jamaica last week had a devastating impact on the island that largely depends on tourism. "This hurricane is really bad news for the Jamaican economy as there is a lot of structural damage in the country's tourist region Montego Bay," says Evan Rees with Plentiful Harvest Farms, supplier of lettuce to many resorts and hotels on the island. It will take a while before tourists return.
Not only tourists, but also the local population heavily depend on the country's lettuce industry. Most lettuce is grown in open fields and with October and November being the planting season, all open field crops have been lost. "These can be replanted, but the biggest issue is that buildings have likely been destroyed as well."
Plentiful Harvest Farms operates a Cravo retractable roof greenhouse near Ocho Rios, situated on the northern part of the island. The retractable roof has created perfect conditions to grow specialty lettuce varieties. "In addition, we grow tomatoes and peppers, mainly supplying hotels, resorts, and restaurants on the island," said Rees.
© Plentiful Harvest Farms
The roof was open and the sides were cut to let the air flow through. The structure is still in tact.
In preparation of Hurricane Melissa, the roof of the greenhouse was opened up, and the sides were cut so air could flow through. "While we lost the majority of our crop as a result, there is no structural damage to the greenhouse." What helped is that Hurricane Melissa had reduced in strength to probably a category 1 or 2 hurricane by the time it hit the Ocho Rios region. Nevertheless, Plentiful Harvest's tomato and lettuce crops will have to be fully replanted due to 100 percent loss. Peppers were impacted the least, but the rain affected the quality.
Rees estimates it will take them about six to eight weeks to be fully back in business. In the meantime, there will be a significant shortage of vegetable products. Kingston, the most densely populated area on the island and home to about 1.5 million people, was minimally impacted by the hurricane. As a result, restaurants are open and back in business already. They need lettuce and other vegetable products and will probably have no choice than to bring it in from the U.S. "This will result in significant price increases for vegetables in the weeks to come."
© Plentiful Harvest Farms
Inside the greenhouse, things were thrown around and plants have been lost.
For more information:
Evan Rees
Plentiful Harvest Farms
[email protected]
www.plentifulharvestfarms.com
