Fallen banana leaves crackle under Alston Lewis' feet as he inspects rows of trees on a steep hillside. The past few months have been dry and even harder times lie ahead.
Low banana prices already have hurt his profits. But a trade deal reached across the globe, without his input, soon will pit bananas grown on his six hectares against cheaper fruit from vast Latin American plantations. Thousands of small Caribbean growers like Lewis will be forced out of business.
"It is becoming more difficult for the small farmer to keep producing," Lewis said. "Quite naturally, we can't compete."
For years, European countries preferred to buy bananas, sugar and other products from their former colonies in the Caribbean, the Pacific and Africa -- lending support to lands they once ruled and people they once enslaved.
The US, arguing that European practices shut out American producers, imposed sanctions on nearly US$200 million worth of European imports last year, from French handbags to Danish ham.
In April, the US and the EU struck a deal in which Caribbean farmers had little say: The Americans agreed to suspend the sanctions July 1, allowing the Europeans to keep banana quotas, although reduced, for former colonies until 2006.
After that, tariffs will remain but quotas will be eliminated, giving a boost to US firms like Chiquita Brands and Dole Foods that charge less for Latin American bananas grown on giant plantations, where costs are lower.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines estimates the number of farmers in the Windward Islands -- St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica and Grenada -- will shrink from 10,000 to 5,000 in the next few years.
"We have to restructure the industry," he said. "If we do not do this, the entire industry would collapse."
Hit by stagnating prices, thousands of growers have cut down their banana trees and replaced them with plantains or arrowroot. Others have turned to an illegal but lucrative crop: marijuana.
"Bananas are too much trouble," said Kamal Jack, a 20-year-old high school dropout who harvests marijuana on St. Vincent's rugged peaks. "I prefer to go in the hills and farm on my own."
While fighting the EU's banana practices, the US also sends troops periodically to eradicate marijuana, "binding both hands" of many in St. Vincent, said Albert Browne, who runs a refrigeration business in the former British colony.
Windward Islands leaders agreed to the outlines of a plan to restructure the banana industry on June 1 in St. Vincent and are meeting on Tuesday in St. Lucia to discuss details. The EU will help fund the plan, estimated to cost 150 million euros (US$56 million).
"The industry is going to have to adapt to what the market requires," said John Caloghirou, EU ambassador for the Eastern Caribbean.
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