ROSEAU, Dominica — Banana growers in the eastern Caribbean have made a dramatic comeback since Hurricane Dean ravaged their crops a year ago, rebuilding farms with help from island governments that see their industry as a key to social stability. Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent are exporting about 1,800 tons of bananas a week — 50 percent more than before the August 2007 hurricane, Fremont Lawrence, a spokesman for the Windward Islands Banana Development and Exporting Co., said last week.
“After Dean, there would have been a lot of replanting,” said Lawrence, whose company ships and markets the bananas to Europe. Damage from the storm was so severe that officials initially expressed fear the industry would not recover. But the poor, tiny islands made it a priority to shore up a sector that sustains hundreds of families in rural areas.
