L’Habitation La Richard, an exceptional banana farm

Located for over 50 years on the slopes of the Carbet peaks, in a lush green setting between the Maximin district and the heights of Bellevue in Trinité, the banana plantation of Habitation La Richard spans over 100 hectares, with a usable agricultural area of 132 hectares. Our banana farm produces 4,000 tons of bananas annually, destined for export to the European market. The regular rainfall, combined with daily sunshine on old volcanic soils rich in organic matter, gives our fruits an incomparable taste. The relatively large size of the plantation allows for land fallow, which helps purify the soil from parasitism and minimizes pesticide use, promoting sustainable agriculture.

The expertise of habitation La Richard

Habitation La Richard is committed to producing high-quality bananas thanks to a team of experienced men and women, deeply attached to their land and proud of their rural heritage.

Plantation

The banana plantation is established from vitro-plants, ensuring the absence of parasitism on purified plots. The team sets up a complementary planting to optimize labor and ensure high productivity per hectare.

Offshoot selection

The team selects successor shoots to ensure the longevity of the plantation.

Leaf cutting

This step involves removing necrotic parts, which is essential for sanitary defoliation to fight against banana cercosporiasis.

Fruit group care

Green sheaths are used to protect the fruits from birds, bats, and rust attacks caused by thrips. A field treatment limits the cigar end disease, avoiding the need to treat them in the packaging unit. The fruits are also tied to enhance their resistance to tropical winds.

Mechanical clearing

The team carries out clearing work in uneven areas to combat weeds, without the use of herbicides.

Weekly harvest

The fruits are harvested by grade to ensure optimal shelf life. This ensures that the fruits arrive green at our ripening facility after 10 days of sea transit, where the team markets them according to weekly demand.

Packaging work

The harvest ends with manual cutting of the bunches. The hands are then separated into bouquets and sorted to eliminate any non-compliant fingers. The fruits are then packed in 18.5 kg US boxes, palletized, and loaded into refrigerated containers.

La plantation de bananes sous le coucher du soleil

Les bananes sont contrôlées avant d'être exportées

La plantation de bananes

A word from the director

Concerned with preserving the future, our farm regularly seeks new collaborators to ensure the daily tasks required for producing high-quality bananas and developing related agricultural or processing activities. Autonomy, rigor, and initiative are the qualities sought to develop the business within the framework of sustainable agriculture, mindful of preserving our unique environment in the context of global warming. We are already over 70 employees working together, and agriculture remains a tremendous source of career opportunities because nature only has the limits we impose on it. There is still much to be done, the journey is not over, come join us in extending it because our activity is noble: feeding our fellow citizens every day with a quality production!

Vincent Douville, Director of Operations at La Richard