Banana Industry

Of the agricultural products, the banana is the fourth most important food product within the least developed countries, being the staple food for some 400 million people (1). Of all the fruits, it holds first place by production volume and is amongst the five most consumed fruits on the planet (2).
Some 1,000 varieties of banana trees have been identified in more than 150 countries, producing around 105 to 120 million tonnes (Mt) of fruit a year. There are two main families: the sweet banana or “fruit”, essentially the Cavendish variety, which represents around 60 to 65 Mt (3) , and the cooking banana - particularly the “plantain” in Africa or the “pisang awak” in Asia - consumed more as a vegetable, which represents around 40 to 50 Mt (4) . Both are mainly autoconsumed as only around 14 Mt of fruit bananas, generating $ 7.9 billion (2009), are traded internationally. Exports of the plantain banana are increasing but still remain a little known and limited market compared with the fruit banana.

Table 1. BANANAS: PRODUCTION OF FRUIT BANANAS AND BANANAS PLAINTAIN (Mt)

| |Cavendish |Other types of |Cooking bananas |Bananas |
|Region | |dessert banana |(ABB, AAA, EAH) |plantain |
| | | | | |
|Latin America |17 714 | 5 247 | 849 | 6 742 |
|Caribbean | 1 302 | 301 | 597 | 939 |
|Mediterranean | 1 713 | 7 | 8 | - |
|Eastern and Southern Africa | 1 810 | 737 |13 370 | 1 275