Banana Production
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The banana industry is an important part of the global industrial
agrobusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit ...
. About 15% of the global banana production goes to
export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...
and
international trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (See: World economy.) In most countries, such trade represents a significan ...
for consumption in
Western countries The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also constitute the West. ...
. They are grown on
banana plantation A banana plantation is a commercial agricultural facility found in tropical climates where bananas are grown. Geographic distribution Banana plants may grow with varying degrees of success in diverse climatic conditions, but commercial banana pl ...
s primarily in the
Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...
.


Ecological impact

As is the case with all
monoculture In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monocultures increase ease and efficiency in planting, managing, and harvesting crops short-term, often with the help of machinery. However, monocultur ...
s, the intensive agroindustrial methods for banana production have considerable environmental impact. Banana cultivation requires a large amount of
pesticide Pesticides are substances that are used to control pests. They include herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, and many others (see table). The most common of these are herbicides, which account for approximately 50% of all p ...
(estimate: ) and can encourage ecosystem destruction through
deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...
. Moreover,
food miles Food miles is the distance food is transported from the time of its making until it reaches the consumer. Food miles are one factor used when testing the environmental impact of food, such as the carbon footprint of the food. The concept of ...
and plastic packaging leave a large
carbon footprint A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country Greenhouse gas emissions, adds to the atmospher ...
.


Cash crop

In 2012 the volume of global gross banana exports reached a record high of , 1.1 million tonnes (or 7.3 percent) above 2011 level. Bananas are the most popular
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
in the United States, with more consumed annually than apples and oranges combined. In spite of the multitude of banana species across the world, even only taking into account the cultivated ones, industrial production is dominated by the
Cavendish banana Cavendish bananas are the fruits of one of a number of banana cultivars belonging to the Cavendish subgroup of the List of banana cultivars#AAA Group, AAA banana cultivar group (triploid cultivars of ''Musa acuminata''). The same term is also use ...
.


Spread of plant disease

Tropical Race 4 is thought to be distributed globally by soil-contaminated equipment from the multinational plantation owners.


Companies

In 2013, five multinational fruit companies alone controlled 44% of the international banana trade: The market share of the above players decreased from 70% in 2002 to about 44% in 2013. This decline in market power has been attributed to a couple of reasons. In the past, multinational companies owned a large number of plantations in Central and South America and other banana-producing regions. Since the 1980s they have divested a large share of their own production, replacing it with greater purchases from independent producers. For example, Chiquita has decreased the number of its plantations in Central America. Fyffes used to own plantations in Jamaica, Belize and the Windward Islands, but withdrew from production and switched to purchasing its bananas through contracts with producers. The disengagement from production was partly caused by legal and economic problems at the plantation level, but also reflects the change in market power along the banana value chain. Along the global banana
supply chain A supply chain is a complex logistics system that consists of facilities that convert raw materials into finished products and distribute them to end consumers or end customers, while supply chain management deals with the flow of goods in distri ...
, major supermarket chains in the US and EU have gained
market power In economics, market power refers to the ability of a theory of the firm, firm to influence the price at which it sells a product or service by manipulating either the supply or demand of the product or service to increase economic profit. In othe ...
over the big producers in the 21st century as they dominate the retail market and increasingly purchase from smaller wholesalers or directly from growers.


Production and export

In 2016, world production of bananas and plantains was 148 million tonnes, led by
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
with a combined total (only for bananas) of 28% of global production (table). Other major producers were the
Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
,
Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
, and
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
, together accounting for 20% of the world total of bananas and plantains (table). As reported for 2013, total world exports were 20 million tonnes of bananas and 859,000 tonnes of plantains. Ecuador and the Philippines were the leading exporters with 5.4 and 3.3 million tonnes, respectively, and the
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
was the leading exporter of plantains with 210,350 tonnes. OEC reports that the total value of banana trade in the period from 2020 to 2021 was $13.6 billion, despite a 2.51 percent decline in export growth.


Controversy

The global banana industry has been involved with multiple human rights violations since its inception in the late 19th century. These include slavery and forced child labor among others and as of 2021, the
Rainforest Alliance The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) with staff in more than 20 countries and operations in more than 70 countries. It was founded in 1987 by Daniel Katz, an American environmental activist, who serve ...
has identified
Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest city and ...
as the country with the highest risk of forced labor, followed by
Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...
,
Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
,
Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
and
Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
among other banana exporting countries.


See also

* Fruit production *
Banana republic In political science, the term ''banana republic'' describes a politically and economically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resource.A banana republic is a country with an economy of state capitalism, where th ...


References


External links


Banana Link , Working Towards A Fair & Sustainable Banana TradePeeling Back the Truth on Bananas - Food Empowerment ProjectBananas Imports by Country 2021Bananas Exports by Country 2021Supple chain management in banana
{{Banana cultivars Tropical agriculture