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Regional banana production also
improved during the year, rising by 29.2% to 209,533 tonnes,
reflecting in large part a recovery in output in Belize following
the damage caused by Hurricane Iris in 2001. Banana output also
expanded in the Windward Islands, growing to 98,893 tonnes compared
to 82,683 tonnes in 2001, on account of improvements in the
irrigation systems and the containment of disease in St. Lucia and
St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
This improvement in banana production
came at a time when regional producers were confronting a number of
challenges in this market, including the erosion of preferential
market access, unfavourable prices and high production costs.
Production of more non-traditional crops, particularly in the OECS
countries, also increased, as farmers sought to reduce earnings
risk. Among the food crops showing increased output values were
plantains, pineapples, yams and peppers.
 Agriculture,
led by sugarcane and banana cultivation had for centuries been the
dominant sector of the Caribbean economy.
Today, tourism is the region's most dominant sector, though
agriculture remains key in terms of both food supply for the
region's people and foreign exchange earnings.
This sector also accounts for significant employment within the
region. According to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)'s review
of the regional economy's 1999 performance, "increased
production and more favorable export prices mitigated against
another year of lackluster performance in regional
agriculture."
Sugar production
increased by 1.2 per cent in Jamaica, 10.9 per cent in Barbados,
25.3 per cent in Guyana and 11.5 per cent in Trinidad and Tobago.
Sugar production which fell to a 50-year low in Cuba in 1998
increased significantly in 1999, reaching 3.7 million tons. The
Dominican Republic also registered an increase in its production.
However, hurricane damage in St. Kitts and Nevis resulted in a 29.5
per cent slump in production.
Continuing
uncertainties in the banana industry led to declining output in all
of the Commonwealth Caribbean banana-producing countries except
Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. However, export
earnings increased in response to improved fruit quality and higher
prices which were the result of a Production Recovery Plan initiated
in the second half of 1998. Overall, the region's agriculture sector
showed signs of improvement in 1999 and early 2000. This sector grew
by 4 per cent in 1999 in Belize and contributed to increased
national growth in Guyana where both sugar (25.3 per cent) and rice
(12.8 per cent) production increased significantly.
Grenada also registered positive growth in its economy largely due
to expanded mace and nutmeg production and exports.
The agriculture and livestock sector in the Dominican Republic
following successive years of setbacks due to weather conditions,
showed marked improvement in 1999. There were increases in coffee,
tobacco, beef, chicken and milk production.
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