Plantation Crops - Horticulture: Plants for People and Places - page 270

Fig. 8.9 Banana production
is labour intensive. Har-
vesting banana bunches is
particularly heavy work
with ratoon bunch weights
typically in the range of
30-60 kg. (©Daniells)
• Banana growing is very labour intensive (Fig. 8.9 ) so, to minimise costs, country
locations are sought where wages are low, such as Latin America and the Philip-
pines.
• Production in tropical equatorial locations facilitates consistent supply of fruit to
importing countries throughout the year. These locations are also sought for their
high yields of fruit which has not been damaged by in-field chilling which occurs
at temperatures <13 °C. Chilled fruit has an unattractive, dull yellow appearance
when ripened. Where possible, locations are sought that seldom suffer severe wind
damage from cyclones/hurricanes, which would lead to severe market supply fluc-
tuations. Therefore so the closer to the equator the better, as these storms are gen-
erally formed between 7-15° latitude and move away from the equator.
• Choice of the most fertile, well-drained, mostly deep alluvial soils, usually on
flat terrain. Poorer soils require more inputs for satisfactory yields and require
replanting more frequently. In the early 20 th Century, great efforts were made by
soil survey teams in difficult tropical jungle conditions to locate the best soils for
the plantations.
• Good rainfall and supplementary irrigation is required to ensure optimal fruit
quality, particularly fruit greenlife ( ( = transport life).
• Significant capital investment in plantation infrastructure is required. This in-
cludes all-weather roads, irrigation systems, elaborate field drainage networks to
minimise waterlogging, cableways to transport fruit to the packhouse (Fig. 8.10 )
and large packhouses to prepare the harvested fruit for dispatch to market.
• About 95 % of export bananas are of the Cavendish type ( Musa AAA group,
Cavendish subgroup) with production restricted to a handful of cultivars which
are genetically very similar. Cavendish bananas are high-yielding and are well
suited to the requirements of the supply chain. Most other types of bananas are
lower yielding [¼-¾ of Cavendish] so it is difficult for them to compete in the
market because of the required premiums for profitability (Daniells et al. 2012 ).