Banana production in the Caribbean

Countries where bananas are a main export crop are Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname and Colombia.

The bananas are carried on the heads of laborers to the nearest road, then transported by trucks and motor trailers to the packing shed.

From the plantations, bunches of bananas are loaded onto cable ways, leading to the packing shed where the choicest fruit is selected for export.

At the boxing plant, the bananas selected are hung on a conveyor and removed by hand from the stalk.

It undergoes regular changes of air to discharge ethylene gases produced by the chemistry of the fruit.

In this way, the fruit can withstand long sea journeys and arrive in good condition.

The small size of farms makes for inefficient production and contributes to a low standard of living.

In the Windward group generally, the majority of the farming population owns less than a third of the banana acreage.

The small size of farms provides a low income to farmers as they are unable to apply fertilizers or minimize the risk of insect pests and diseases.

Bananas are also plentiful in Latin America and Africa, thus imposing a threat to the Caribbean's position on the British market.

In Grenada, the Moko disease (Ralstonia solanacearum) has caused much destruction in the northern part of the island while it has eradicated the industry in Trinidad and Tobago out of commercial production during the 1960s.