Another cyclone could ruin Australian banana industry

Banana growers fear the multi-million dollar industry in north Queensland may never recover if the region is battered by cyclones in successive seasons, according to a report by news agency AAP today.

Growers in the Innisfail and Tully regions have voiced concern over the future of the industry should crops be destroyed by another vicious storm so soon after Cyclone Larry tore through the region.

Category five Larry decimated banana and sugarcane crops, destroyed houses and demolished rainforest in north Queensland when it roared across the coast on March 20 this year.