A large coconut farm in Manchioneal, Portland. Jamaican and other regional coconut orchards are under threat from a new pest, the red mite. - file

Linda Hutchinson-Jafar, Business Reporter

A tiny mite commonly found in Asia and capable of rampant destruction on coconut palm trees and possibly bananas, is attacking fauna here, a research agency has said.

The red palm mite was confirmed in Jamaica two months ago, according to Bruce Lauckner, acting executive director of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI).

The pest's discovery comes as Jamaica was finalising a coconut replanting programme after its trees were decimated by lethal yellowing.

The red mite has already attacked coconut trees in St. Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Martin, The Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago, and was recently found in Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, two United States territories.

Who's to blame?

"With all invasive species, no one wants to claim responsibility for it being introduced, but as far as the English-speaking Caribbean is concerned, there's no doubt that the first country infected was St. Lucia and St. Lucians feel with some justification - I think they're correct - that it came from Martinique.

"The thing is that in this day and age, people and goods travel, and these little things can skip over half the world and cause havoc."

Invasives are defined as species that are non-native to a given ecosystem and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm, or harm to human health.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (which is monitoring the red palm mite in the Caribbean) said its scientists have joined a multinational effort to stop the mite that may create big problems.

Annual production halved

Philippe Agostini, chairman of the Coconut Growers Association in Trinidad, estimates that up to half its annual production has been lost due to the presence of the mite, coupled with an excessive dry season.

"What is even more shocking than the impact of this thing is the poor response by the government," said Agostini.

He attributed the shortage of bottled coconut water at supermarkets nationwide over recent months to the effects of the pest and said coconut growers were still counting their losses.

In Jamaica, the sector peaked at almost 155 million coconuts in 1996, dropping a decade later to 95,871 nuts, with much of the losses attributed to the deadly lethal yellowing disease. A replanting programme involving distribution of 100,000 seedlings, which began in 2002, comes to an end this year.

Laucker, a biometrician, said if nothing was done about the red palm mite, the region would end up importing coconut water.

"At the moment the coconut production is in decline because of the red palm mite and it will probably soon go into steep decline," he said.

Cardi proposal

CARDI has submitted a proposal to the recent Agricultural Donor Conference in Trinidad to deal with issues such as invasive diseases that are frequently entering the Caribbean.

"That project is like US$14 million to put the Caribbean in a position where it would be able to deal with these sorts of incursions, without having to sort of beg India for assistance and these kinds of things," said the CARDI official, who is based at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad.

The Agricultural Research and Development Institute said concerns about invasives are well founded as together they cost the U.S. more than US$137 billion annually in damage and control measures.

It said that currently, there were more than 30,000 invasive species in the U.S. and more are introduced every year.

business@gleanerjm.com