Caribbean Farming Limited—a short introduction The Caribbean Farming Group is doing agro business in Belize, Central America. The Group started its activities in Belize in 1986, and since then the operation in Be-lize has grown extensively. The holding company Caribbean Farming Ltd. has established itself with several Be-lizean companies, which today owns and operates 11 farms and other productions in Belize, on a total area of approx. 40.000 acres of land, out of which approx. 7.500 acres are cultivated with mainly bananas, citrus and shrimp. In 1986 the Caribbean Farming Group purchased Monkey River Estate, then known as “The Mango Farm”. With more than 1000 acres of mango it was at the time the biggest privately owned mango farm in Latin America. For a couple of years Monkey River Estate was run with the purpose of exporting fresh fruit and producing mango pulp for juice, and 500 acres of new mangoes were established. When this proved not to be a profitable business, the mangoes were processed and exported as dried fruit. In October 2001 the 1500 acres mango plantation was totally destroyed by Hurri-cane Iris, and it can never be recovered. Very early the holding company Caribbean Farming Ltd. invested in the establish-ment of 4000 acres of citrus and 400 acres of bananas at Monkey River Estate. Now Monkey River Estate is known for its pioneering effort in transforming the for-mer pine ridge into a low cost, but well established citrus farm. Toledo Citrus Company, a subsidiary of Caribbean Farming Ltd., now grows 4.000 acres of citrus with mainly Valencia oranges. At present the fruit is sold to the local citrus company for juice production. The plantation suffered severe damage from Hurricane Iris in October 2001. The en-tire crop was lost, all trees lost the leaves and many branches were broken and twisted, and all trees suffered damage to the root system – the plantation was set back 2 to 3 years. In 2002 around 10 % of the plantation was replanted. By now the plantation is re-covering, and is expected to be back to the production level of 2001 before the hur-ricane in the crop year 2004. During the years the Caribbean Farming Group has invested seriously in banana production, which is the cornerstone of the Group’s business in Belize. Several well established farms were purchased and new plantations were established. At present the Group owns and operates 8 banana farms, and with approx. 2.500 acres of bananas, the Caribbean Farming Group produces nearly 40% of the coun-try’s bananas for export.

The bananas are AAA-quality, and for more than 15 years the total production has been sold through the local Banana Growers Association on a long term con-tract to Fyffes. In October 2001 all the Group’s farms in Belize were directly hit by Hurricane Iris, a very forceful hurricane which destroyed the banana production in southern Belize. During 4th quarter of 2001 and the year 2002, a concentrated and professional ef-fort has been done, and the total area of bananas has been reestablished. Toledo Fish Farming Ltd. started shrimp production in 1995 at Monkey River Es-tate. At present the company is producing shrimp from 600 acres of saltwater ponds, with 1-2 harvests per year. The shrimps are sold to local processors and exporters - either as head-on (a demanding quality which is sold to the European market) or as 1st quality tails-only for the US market. Belize has maintained a relatively disease free environment and has implemented controls for those diseases occurring in the region, and the discipline of the pro-ducers is high. A challenge to Toledo Fish Farming and other producers in Belize is to produce more efficiently and to be able to do profitable business in a very competitive world market. Besides these main productions, the Caribbean Farming companies grow other crops such as cassava for human consumption and also for shrimp feed. Further-more it runs a smaller logging- and sawmill operation. A related company owns 20.000 acres of forest land in the Southern part of Be-lize. This area with secondary forest was bought with the intention to clear part of the land, cut and sell the timber, to start a new agro-industrial division with ba-nanas and shrimp, and to keep part of the land as a biological reserve. The hurri-cane destroyed most of the forest area, and Caribbean Farming was forced to fo-cus all economic and human efforts on reestablishing the profit producing busi-ness in Belize. With 1500 people employed the Caribbean Farming Group is the most impor-tant farm enterprise in Southern Belize, and the companies are respected for their positive influence on the economic and social development in Toledo Dis-trict.

Citrus, shrimp and Open Sunday…..

No. Name of subsidiary Prop1 Belize Gold Bananas 1.546

2 Tropical Produce Ltd. 4.770

3 Toledo Citrus Company Ltd. 5.093

4 Toledo Fish Farming Ltd. 545

5 Farm 1 Ltd. 1.140

6 Cowpen Farms Ltd. 1.930

7 Farm 11 Ltd. 510

8 Farm 12 Ltd. 448

9 D&F Ltd. – Farm 2 540

10 D&F Ltd. – Farm 6 1.510

11 D&F Ltd. – Black Creek (lease) 2.225

12 Riversdale Ltd.

13 Golden Stream Estate * 5.416

14 Seven Hills Estate Ltd. * 11.011

15 Whitney’s Estate Ltd. * 5.125 Total

41.80

erty Production acres Bananas 440 acres

Cassava 230 acres

acres Citrus 1.000 acres Mango 150 acres Cassava 120 acres

acres Citrus 3.580 acres Shrimps 250 acres

acres Shrimps 350 acres

acres Bananas 450 acres acres Bananas 204 acres

Lime 30 acres

acres Bananas 350 acres

acres Bananas 120 acres acres Bananas 400 acres acres Bananas 350 acres acres

Sawmill acres

acres acres

09 acres * Owned by a sister company

Properties in Belize

In October 2001 the farms of the Caribbean Farming Group were directly hit by the forceful hurricane “Iris”. Just before “Iris” the Group was in the best position ever with 2 newly acquired farms, Farm 2 and Farm 6, and several hundred acres of newly established meristem bananas which were just beginning to harvest. Hurricane Iris totally destroyed the plantations and there were no income generating production within the group for some time to be. A huge re-investment project was implemented from day one and during 2002 in record-time, planned and or-ganized with great professional skill and a lot of dedicated work from the management team and all the em-ployees in Belize, and by the end of 2002 the total acreage of 2400 acres of bananas was reestablished, with one third of that area replanted with meristem plants, partly in a crop timing system to better satisfy market demands. Though the banana farms were covered by insurance, it only covered part of the expenses, and the Caribbean Farming Group incurred direct or indirect losses as a consequence of the hurricane of over US$ 8 million on top of the amount recovered from the insurance companies. The local banks and financial institutions were generally very supportive, and allowed grace on principal pay-ments. The Group obtained new lending in 2002 and 2003 from local banks to finance the aftermath of Hurri-cane Iris, which of course adds to debt burden of the local companies. The employment of all employees continued after the hurricane, nobody lost their job, but many had the work-week reduced to 4 days for a period of time. At present the companies employ 1500 people full time. During 2003 the bananas have come back in production and the first half of 2003 saw the highest production ever in a 6 month period in the company’s history.

Bananas in BelizeHectares and boxes produced

from 1998 to May 2003

304429

546

904

0

908 944 960

1.600.000(projection)

868.000

0

953.000822.000

545.000485.000 626.000

0

500

1000

1500

2000

1998 1999 2000 2001 sept. Iris 2002 2003 may 2003

HectaresBoxes

After the Hurricane Iris

October 2001

2 years after—the bananas are “up and running”.

October 2003

The blue dots on the map show the farms of the company and the red dots show the forest properties in the south.

FC&L

Belize Gold Ba-nanas Ltd.

Tropical Produce Co. Ltd.

Toledo Citrus Company Ltd.

Toledo Fish Farming Ltd.

D&F Ltd.

Cowpen Farms Ltd.

Farm 12 Ltd.

Farm 11 Ltd.

Farm 1 Ltd.

John F. Parson Ltd.

Rivers-dale Ltd.

Caribbean Farming Ltd. Holding Company Grand Cayman,

Caribbean Farming Limited is the holding company of the Belizean group of companies, which owns and operates the farms in Belize. Caribbean Farming Limited is one of several holding companies within the FC&L-group. The activities of FC&L started in the 80’ies and the Group owns and operates 20 farms and agro-industrial companies in 9 countries, especially in Central– and South America.

Board of Directors: Anne Hansen Birgitte Krohn Else Jensen J.H.M. Nagel CEO: Soeren Soerensen Financial Contr.: Laila Mehlum Principal Bankers: The Belize Bank Limited 60 Market Square, Belize City, Belize Barclays Bank International Corporate Banking 68, Knightsbridge London SW1X 7NT

Auditors Wilkins Kennedy Bridge House, London Bridge London SE1 9QR Registered Zephyr House, Mary Street, address: P. O. Box 709G George Town, Grand Cayman, B. W. I. Phone: + 1 305 895 1661 Fax: + 1 305 402 3121 Administ. Monkey River Estate Head office: Toledo District, Belize E-mail: Caribbeanfarming@earthlink.