Hurricane Eta Has Wiped Out Half of Honduras' Banana Production

The original Banana Republic.

From Fresh Plaza:

Tropical storm Hurricane Eta has hit a country that was already hurting from the negative economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the productive sector. During the critical months of the health crisis, the agricultural sector was one of the few activities that had managed to continue to grow; however, Eta has caused damage to a considerable amount of crops for local consumption and has caused heavy losses in an important export product, bananas.

The banana sector estimates that 8,000 hectares of crops have been lost due to the floods, i.e. more than half of the 15,000 hectares existing in Honduras.

"I think this is the biggest damage in history for bananas," said producer Hector Castro. The leader estimates that at least 16,000 direct jobs are in danger and that the export volume will decrease.

As of last August, agricultural product exports had increased by 10.7% over the same period of 2019, totaling $ 631.0 million, thanks to the $63.6 million year-on-year increase in banana exports, mainly to the United States. The volume of fruit shipments fell by 4.6%, but the average international price increased by 26.3%, according to data reported by the Central Bank....

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The La Prensa story from which this is synopsized  is quite extensive.

El Mundo's story has some pics of the damage. This is a serious situation.