E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

United Fruit Company Happy with Haliburton Cyclone Division Results
BANANA growers in Western Australia, who had been poised to capitalise after Cyclone Larry devastated Queensland's banana industry, are instead bracing for their own potential losses.

Category-five Larry crushed the north Queensland banana industry early last week, prompting a big jump in the price of the fruit.

Growers in Carnarvon, 904km north of Perth, are now bracing for the impact of tropical cyclone Glenda, rated a category four, in what was expected to a big year for local producers.

The Carnarvon Banana Producers Association said Glenda, poised to cross the Pilbara coast in WA later today, could pose a threat to its growers in the Gascoyne region, to the south of the Pilbara.

Executive officer David Parr said crops could be destroyed in winds as low as 70km/h.

"It doesn't take an awful lot to knock bananas over," Mr Parr said.

"We were looking at a very lucrative business this year with the loss of the Queensland banana industry."

But Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Bruce Buckley expected WA banana producers would suffer more from flooding more than high winds.
Posted by: phil_b 2006-03-30
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=147015