Banana production in Belize

Banana production in Belize accounted for 16 percent of total Belizean exports in 1999.

[2] Over the last 70 years, the pattern of banana production has gradually shifted away from large scale American and British owned company production to smaller-scale localised indigenous farming primarily targeted at the European market.

[2] The government reacted to the plight of the board by selling the 880 hectares (2,200 acres) under cultivation to the private sector.

[2] Five years later, banana production had almost tripled, and the cultivated area had increased to more than 2,400 hectares (5,900 acres).

[2] The purpose of this special provision was to protect the central export crop of some of the islands of the Lesser Antilles, members of the Commonwealth of Nations, from ruinous competition from low-cost producers in Latin America.

[2] The susceptibility of bananas to disease and possible changes in Belize's preferential access to the British market were factors that could limit growth in this sector.