exter Kurten thought he "had
it made" when he and several other investors in Trinidad
decided to set up a fruit and vegetable import business late last
year.
His plan was to provide all the local hotels and supermarkets with a reliable supply of fresh high quality garden produce. Like most new businesses he had teething problems from the onset. His first shipment to Trinidad included several tonnes of bananas.
His contact in one of the smaller islands, who took care of ordering the produce mis-interpreted the maturity of the fruit and they arrived in Trinidad fully ripened and unfit for istribution.
Well the first time was bad, so he tried it again. This time he ordered bananas from St Lucia. He went up personally and administered the selection process, so he was assured of quality fruit.
To his horror, on arrival in Trinidad, the produce was infested with the dreaded mealy bug. Only afterwards he realised that the shippers, one of the island hopping cargo freighters, stopped at all the islands on its way to Trinidad and his cargo along with everything else on the ship was infected by a shipment from Grenada. The few hours it took to get the new cargo on the ship and sail the 90 miles to Trinidad was enough for the pest to migrate to all the cargo on board, he said.
Apart from a personal disaster to my distribution business, this pest is potentially one of the worst disasters facing the regional agriculture sector. He adds, it will not only affect the farmers but it will also affect the consumers because the distributors will have to pay a premium for mealy bug free produce.
When choosing ripe bananas and many other tropical fruit and vegetable in the grocery or even in the rural village market, most people look for a firm texture with rich even colour. This is usually the yard stick used by most housewives and shoppers to test the freshness of the produce. But all these traditions may have to be brushed aside if Trinidad and Tobago is to deal effectively with the Hibiscus Mealy Bug.
"The procedure used to eradicate the mealy bug from imported fruit at the docks is often too harsh on the produce, says Kurten. The requirements include the dipping of produce in a soapy solution of between 60 and 80 degree Celsius for 30 to 60 seconds. And it is sometimes done at both the port of departure as well as at the destination port. "In effect, this parboils the produce. It can damage the skin and reduce the shelf life of the produce. It can also damages the appearance of the fruit making it more difficult for retailers to get off their hands."
"Apart from the severe curtailing of imports of produce from the smaller islands to Trinidad, this will make the produce scarce and consumers may have to brace for higher prices, he adds.
Despite this, there is always the risk that all the bugs may not be killed by the procedure, and if customs find the bug on some samples the whole shipment may be dumped. Mealy bugs also spread so quickly that they may migrate to other importers cargo while in transit to Trinidad.
"We had performed the procedure on our imports from St Lucia (the port of departure) and only after it arrived in Trinidad we realised that the bug may have migrated from cargo that may not have been properly treated when loaded either in St Lucia, Grenada or another port on its way to Trinidad.
Grenada's Ministry of Agriculture issued a ban on fresh fruits and vegetable exports to Trinidad in May 1995 after the TT Government voiced its concerns about the plague reaching their shores.
Exports to the United States have not been badly affected by the pest as traders from around the region observe stricter shipping and product preparation practices when shipping to the US. .
Biological warfare may be the only long term answer to the mealy bug threat, says Matthew Cock, Deputy Director of the Trinidad arm of the International Institute of Biological Control.
The only solution he says is the introduction of a small wasp, the anagyrus kamali, which is bred in China. The wasp is less than half an inch long and inserts the bug in its egg chamber when it lays. The young wasp or grub feeds on the mealy bug until it is mature enough to emerge from the chamber.
Matthew Cock contends that the catastrophe which occurred in Grenada can be averted in Trinidad if the wasp is introduced quickly. He argues that the wasp can be bought here at a cost of about $600,000. This is far below the $1 million that has been allocated by the central Government for the mealy bug eradication, he says.
He admits however that the wasp will not eradicate the pest, but will keep it down to controllable numbers. And, it has been successful at controlling the pest in the far east especially India and China, he adds.
Meanwhile, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture are putting more of their hope on a small ladybug which also has its roots in the far east. Strains of the ladybug (crypto laemus) already exist in Trinidad.
The ladybug is believed to be a better predator of the mealy bug because unlike the wasp which mainly uses the mealy bug to feed its young, the lady bug actually eats the mealybug as part of its diet.
This means the ladybug can eat more of the bugs and multiply faster than the wasps, says Dr Mona Jones, Research Director at the Ministry.
If a biological alternative is finally decided to be the best offense, then spraying the areas where the bug is expected to invade must be avoided.
Farmers should not spray their crops against the mealy bug if it has not invaded their crops says the experts, since the pesticides will kill all insects in its path, including the ones which can control the spread of the bug.
Researchers, believe the bug may have arrived in the region from India in the late 1980's. Its first landing is thought to be in Grenada where it was able to multiply since many of its natural enemies are not present on the island.
It may have first arrived in Trinidad about 18 months ago through the inter-island ferries as Trinidad is a major market for produce from the other islands.
From Trinidad, the pest threatens to invade South America, and the rest of the Caribbean.
Jones stressed that the mealy bug is being seen as a hemispheric problem because it can feed on a wide array of plants and it can be easily transported across geographical boundaries.
The total cost of introducing the the two predators in Trinidad and Grenada is estimated to be about US$15 million and officials are hoping to obtain international funding to start the program within the next two months.
There is also need for institutional strengthening at ports around the region to prevent the spread of the pest to other islands says Dr Arlington Chesney, of the Inter- American Institute for Co- operation in Agriculture (IICA).
He said the Organization of American States will be funding a short-term eradication and educational program for agriculture officials involved in the campaign against the pest.
The program includes the spraying of specific areas which have been affected; research on the treatment of affected produce; quarantine training and the funding of surveys in countries which have been identified as high risk.