What a difference a year makes

by Faith Mall, Communications Officer, Fairtrade Foundation

As we look forward to 2012, life is beginning to look rosier for the smallholder banana farmers of the Windward Islands. This time last year, around 2310 farmers weren’t sure if they had a livelihood, after a devastating hurricane destroyed their banana trees.

Earlier this year I travelled to the Windward Islands of St Lucia and Dominica to see WINFA’s rehabilitation following hurricane Tomas. I had seen reports and images of the destruction which affected three of the four islands. In two of these, St Vincent and St Lucia, 100% of the banana trees were destroyed. Roads, houses, cars and power lines were also damaged.

Quite a lot of this damage is still visible today. Photo journalist Simon Rawles, accompanied me and made this film for the Guardian.

People in the Windwards Islands are used to hurricanes. When planning my trip the first recommendation was come at the end of the hurricane season. The worst hurricane in living memory was Hurricane Ivan.

What was different about hurricane Tomas, I am told, was the rain. St Lucian banana farmer Stephen Best told me: ‘It started raining but it was torrential and because of the wind, it was coming through the doors and damaging roofs. It was quite frightening and my banana fields started to fill up with rain. When the rain stopped and began to recede, the sheer force of the water, carried many plants away.’

I heard the same story many times but told by different farmers during my trip. In the aftermath, the already depleted and struggling banana industry was almost destroyed as farmers couldn’t meet orders that included those from UK retailers Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.

Although the government provided some funding for rebuilding the industry, the National Fairtrade Organisations from all of the islands agreed that money from the social premium could also be used.

It has been a long and difficult journey for the farmers to reclaim water-logged land, replant trees and start selling back to local and international markets but after several months, the first shipment of bananas were dispatched by boat and are back on sale in UK supermarkets.

There is still much to be rebuilt, but for WINFA, the New Year promises more hope for the future than 2011.