Bananas are symbolic of the wide range of injustices present in international trade today.

These include:-

• unacceptable working and living conditions for many of those who grow and harvest the bananas;
• suppression of independent trade unions;
• environmental devastation caused by toxic chemicals and intensive farming;
• the disproportionate economic and political power of the handful of multinational corporations which supply bananas to the North.

Bananas are the fourth most important staple crop in the world, critical for food security in many tropical countries. World banana production amounts to some 65 million tonnes per year concentrated in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America because of the climatic conditions.

More than 85 countries produce bananas and plantains, but for at least 15 Latin American and Caribbean producer countries, the Cavendish variety of banana is a crucial source of export income. Several million people depend on the banana trade for their livelihood. About 20% of the 65 million tonnes of bananas produced each year enter world trade; in fact Brazil and India, the two biggest banana producing countries, are hardly involved in the international banana trade at all. The highest consumption per person is in Uganda, where bananas are produced solely for local consumption.

The crop is grown by millions of small-scale farmers in Africa, South Asia and Northern Latin America for household consumption and or/local markets. Most of this production is achieved with few or no external inputs. However, once a producer grows for the export markets of the industrialised world, considerable and growing levels of external inputs (for example pesticides) are required to effectively compete in these markets.

(The above was taken from the Banana Link website)

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