BANANAS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16326, 23 August 1913, Page 8

BANANAS.

AN lAIPORTANT INDUSTRY

As thero are prospects, says “Dalgety's Review,” of a largo increase in Queensland of banana cultivation, reference might bo made to a recent report which gives somo valuable information regarding this industry as it is carried on on tho other side of tho world. Its development in that part which is closest to tho largest consuming area may bo said to have begun forty years ago, when Captain L. D. Baker, _ returning from a- voyage up the Orinoco River in Venezuela, called at Port Morant, Jamaica, for a cargo of bamboos, taking also some bunches of bananas to his homo port, Boston, United States. Although these wero not tho first bananas to lie taken to tho States, it was owing to tho foresight of Captain Baker that this small import turned out to be tho beginning of a great business. Jamaica holds world’s leadership in the production and exportation of this fruit. In 1911 it shipped a total of 16,497.385 bunches or stems, valued at £1,456,581, or more than one-half tho total value of all exports from the island in that year. Nearly all these were consigned to tho United States, tho balance going to the “United Kingdom, Canada, Bermuda, etc. Costa Rica ranked second after Jamaica as a producer of bananas, with exports of over 9,000,000 bunches; then cam© Honduras with 6,500,000, Colombo with 4,000,000, Panama with 4,250,000. the Canary Islands, Cuba and Nicaragua with about 2,250,000 each, Guatemala 1.750,000, Alexico, British Honduras, Santo Domingo, Dutch Guiana and other countries 2,250,000 combined.

It should bo borne in mind that tlio world’s actual production of bananas is far greater than tho amount exported, since there aro many countries that have no foreign market for their abundant crops of this fruit, it all being used in tho home market, also in tho exporting countries tho home consumption is very great. The United States Consul at Port Antonio, Jamaica, says that iu Jamaica, as in othor countries, tho natives not only eat ripe bananas as a fruit, but they boil the green fruit and eat it as a vegetable, and also use it iu this form to fatten pigs.

As Jamaica is officially reporter! as having bad 82,436 acres under bananas in 1911, when tho exports amounted to over 16,000,000 bunches, it appears that tho average amount of exportable bunches per aero was 200, and as tho average market price was a fraction over Is Id per bunch, tlio average gross yield for the island was £ll 9s per acre. Thero is an average of 140 bananas to a buneli. In Panama and Costa Rica, where tlio land is very fertile and tho plants aro sot further apart tho average exportable crop is from 140 to 150 bunches per acre. In Colombo it is nearly 200. A standard market bunch of bananas is one with nine hands (each group of bananas on the stem is called a hand). The price, which varies with tho season of tho year, is quoted at so much a hundred bunches or “counts.” A bunch of nine hands or more is called a “count.” One of eight hands is three-fourths, one. of. seven hands onehalf, and a bunch hands onefourth of a “count,” so that four bundles of six hands each bring only os much as on© of nine hands. Bunches with fewer than six hands are seldom exported. In order to avoid any ambiguity in tho use of terms tlio word stems is employed instead of bunches m tho Jamaican Government statistics.

The largest bunches are produced in tlio Bocas del Toro district in Panama. Costa Rica and Colombia ranking second and third respectively in this respect. Bunches of ton to fifteen hands are not uncommon in Panama and Costa Rica, and a bunch of twenty-two hands was once grown in Panama. Notwithstanding an increased acrengo in bananas the Jamaica crop for 1912 showed a considerable decroaso in oonscquonco of nil unusually protracted drought, and the crop was further damaged by hurricanes which swept tho island on November 17 and 18. As tho loss in Jamaica will probably be more than compensated by gains in Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, and other countries which have been steadily increasing tho acreage under this crop a small advance in the world’s production may ho expected. The consumption of bananas-in manufacturing food products, an industry which has assumed considerable importance in Jamaica, will bo checked for some time owing to tlieso lnirrican es. '

While Jamaica exported nearly twieo as many bananas last year as any other country, tho United States imported moro than five times as many as any other country. For tho fiscal year ending Juno 20, 1912, tho bananas imported into tho United States reached the enormous total of 44,500,000 bunches, valued at about £3.000,000. Great Britain imported during the year 1911 a total of 6,714,000 hunches, valued at £1,863,000. During the same year tlio value of bananas including banana food products, imported into Germany amounted to £411.000. Estimating the average number of bananas at 140 to the bunch, it appears that the people of the United States consume annually more than 60 for every man, woman and child. The increasing consumption or bananas in a number of countries naturally raises the question of an adequate supply to meet the coming demand. In Jamaica, where the immense banana crop is produced on about, three per cent- of the total acreage of the island, there is yet plenty of -suitablo land available. In Mexico, Central America and Colombia, not to mention the largo possibilities of Hayti and the Dominican Republic, there are vast tracts of land where a fertile soil, warm climate and abundant rainfall favour the production of bananas on a large scale. As all the conditions seem to be favourable for greatly increased production of bananas, and as the highly nutritive qualities of this fruit are becoming generally more recognised, it is encouraging in this day of costly living to have good reasons for believing that tho banana is destined to play no small part in meeting the world’s insistent demand for a larger and cheaper supply of wholesome fruit.