Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Although banana production for export had begun in much of mainland Central America in the 1880s, its initial impetus was from local small or medium-sized holdings. As infrastructure companies gained control of land around their railroads, however, they used their capacity to create much larger holdings and their control of trade to force the ...
Banana cultivation is a major employer of rural labor as it is a labor-intensive industry. In Dominica, it is the second largest employer after the government, providing work for 6,000 farmers with another 700 employed at boxing plants. In St. Lucia, it provides employment for about 10,000 workers. In St. Vincent, there are about 5,000 banana ...
A banana plantation in St. Lucia. The banana industry is an important part of the global industrial agrobusiness. About 15% of the global banana production goes to export and international trade for consumption in Western countries. [1] They are grown on banana plantations primarily in the Americas. [2]
The earliest modern plantations originated in Jamaica and the related Western Caribbean Zone, including most of Central America. Plantation cultivation involved the combination of modern transportation networks of steamships and railroads with the development of refrigeration that allowed more time between harvesting and ripening.
The company was formed in 1899 from the merger of the Boston Fruit Company with Minor C. Keith's banana-trading enterprises. It flourished in the early and mid-20th century, and it came to control vast territories and transportation networks in Central America, the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and the West Indies.
Banana production in 1999 was 130,000 tons. Bananas formed 2.4% of the exports in 1999 and Jamaica formed around 7.5% of the total production of banana in the Caribbean. Jamaica stopped exporting banana in 2008 after suffering from several years of hurricanes that devastated the plantations.
A warming climate and fast-spreading diseases threaten supplies and push up prices, a top banana industry expert warns.
Commercial banana production in the United States is relatively limited in scale and economic impact. While Americans eat 26 pounds (12 kg) of bananas per person per year, the vast majority of the fruit is imported from other countries, chiefly Central and South America, where the US has previously occupied areas containing banana plantations, and controlled the importation of bananas via ...