THE Taiwan Technical Mission and the Banana Productivity Improvement Project (BPIP) held training workshops on Black Sigatoka Control and Fruit Quality Control at the field level. These training workshops were put together as a result of repeated reports of quality issues from the marketing company Winfresh and regional exporters. The training workshops were held in Odsan, Ti Rocher, Desruisseaux and Jacmel on October 10th, 17th, 24th, 28th. Banana packers had opportunities to practice packing different product types under professional instructions.
The regional exporters provided the participants with an overview of the marketing situation in the Caribbean islands as it relates to St Lucia bananas and delved into quality concerns and other issues. Practical training sessions were held, where trained BPIP officers provided the specifications for different product types along with demonstrations, from Banana Bunch to Box in the field level. In addition, Taiwanese Banana Production Expert Johnson Wu explained the relationship between Black Sigatoka Disease and fruit quality issues. He indicated that by controlling Black Sigatoka Disease, uneven ripening of banana fruits can be reduced; therefore fruit quality issues could be controlled as well.
More than 230 farmers benefited from the training workshops. The Taiwan Technical Mission and BPIP will conduct more training workshops with banana farmers from all the banana producing areas on the island. The Taiwan Technical Mission continues to support banana farmers by providing the required assistance in an effort to meet the desired quality standards for the benefit of the local banana industry.