Banana exports from Belize were affected for months as of last October, due to United State's sanctions against one banana farmer and exporter. The farmer in question, John Angel Zabaneh, was blacklisted for alleged ties to a top drug lord, but the action taken against him did more than just sideline one local businessman, it threw hundreds of people out of work and undercut a main source of hard currency for the tiny Central American country, reports Reuters.
Belize's banana crop, which makes up a fifth of the country's exports, faces other obstacles beyond sanctions. Droughts and floods have damaged crops and a further hit is likely after Hurricane Earl swept through the tiny nation this month.
But government officials and industry executives in Belize said Zabaneh's blacklisting -- part of counter-narcotics sanctions aimed at choking off the drug trade in Latin America -- had a marked impact on the country's overall banana exports in late 2015 and early 2016 and contributed to a sharp economic contraction.
A 42 percent drop in banana shipments in the first three months of 2016, stemming from the closure of Zabaneh's farms and the floods, helped drive a two percent drop in economic output in the first quarter, according to the Belize Statistical Institute.
"We're a smaller banana supplier, therefore the economics are very touch and go," said Sam Mathias, general manager of the Belize Banana Growers' Association (BGA). "You reduce our annual volume by a little bit, it does make a big difference."
The blacklisting of Zabaneh in 2012 had little impact for the first three years because Zabaneh, now 61, quickly stepped away from his business, once one of the largest banana farms in Belize.
Soon after the U.S. Treasury blacklisted Zabaneh, his company Mayan King, and a handful of other people and companies, Treasury and Belize officials explored the idea of transferring the farms to another firm, said Jose Alpuche, chief executive of Belize's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Another company, Meridian Enterprise, took over management of the farms from Mayan King, Zabaneh said.
For years, the sole buyer of Belize's bananas has been Ireland-based Fyffes. The company said in a statement that the BGA had confirmed in 2012 that Zabaneh and Mayan King had resigned from the trade group, and that the farms were under new ownership not connected to Zabaneh. It continued to buy bananas from the farms for three more years.
But the blacklisting finally bit late last year when Zabaneh was quoted in local media speaking about the farms' operations. He said he was representing his mother, who, he told Reuters, owned the farms throughout the change in management.
The report publicly linking him to the farms prompted Fyffes to cut off purchases of the bananas, the company said in October 2015. It has continued to buy bananas from other farms in Belize.
"Those would have been bananas that were already ready for harvest and for shipment, so the minute he was stopped, then we lost his portion of exports," Alpuche said.
Fyffes' decision caused an instant 13.5 percent plunge in Belize's banana exports, said Mathias.
The value of banana exports dropped by $1 million in October 2015, or 20 percent compared to the prior year, according to the Belize Statistical Institute, which linked the drop that month to the closure of the farms.
Zabaneh's farms now lie dormant and overgrown with weeds, with the bananas sick with black sigatoka disease, said Alpuche, who recently visited the area. The farms used to employ about 900 workers, Alpuche said.
