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Bananas as a food commodity - Coggle Diagram
Bananas as a food commodity
Introduction
Bananas are one of the world’s favourite fruits and one of the world’s most commonly eaten
Of all agricultural products, bananas are the 4th most important food product within the least developed countries - they are the staple food for 400 million people
They are 5th most traded agricultural commodity
In 2013 - 16.5 million tonnes were exported from Latin America and Caribbean
Bananas as an industry including location
India, Brazil and many Afrcian countries produce huge volumes - most of which are consumed domestically.
India is the largest producer of bananas globally and exports to the Middle East and parts of Asia.
However, some regions of the world produce bananas mainly for exports, rather than domestic consumption. These are concentrated around Central America and the Caribbean. Some of these countries are reliant on banana exports
Bananas are grown in hot, rainiy lowland of tropical regions. The fact they can only be grown in certain regions but demanded all over the world, is the essence of global trade
Disease (Cavendish bananas)
Bananas are very vulnerable to diseases and are treated with chemicals throughout the production cycle. Many bananas are produced on commercial plantations operated by large TNCs
This causes many problems such as:
TNCs often apply around 30kg of active ingredients per hectare per year. This include fungicides, insecticides and herbicides
Fertilisers are also used and after the product has been picked is washed with disinfectant
The use of such volumes of chemicals causes problems for people and the environment.
Employees are often not provided with the correct protective equipment which means that infections and respiratory diseases are common.
In some cases, plantations are sprayed with chemicals via planes and this causes problems for local people who live close to the areas of production.
Causes eutrophication of local water sources and this causes damage to rest of the ecosystems.
The use of chemicals can cause the soil to become more salinized as the chemicals evapourate quickly in the tropical conditions
With the exception of cotton, this means that banana industry has the largest agrochemical input in the environment
Enviromental damage
large areas of tropical forest is cleared to make space for plantations. This is because such place have ideal climatic conditions for growing crops.
example of mono-culture. This means that disease will spread quickly between different plants which partly explains the use of so many chemicals
The banana trade including TNCs
World trade is dominated by 2 different groups of producers
The ACP group - Africa (mainly Ivory Coast and Cameroon), Caribbean and Pacific.
Dollar Producers - Central American republics - mainly Ecuador and Columbia. Banana trade is mainly controlled by American TNCs
Exports dominated in Latin America and Caribbean countries - nearly 80% of the export market
As with many products produced in developing countries, but generally consumed in developed regions
around 90% of the price paid by the end of the consumer stays in developed countires
largest importers are the EU and USA
TNCs influence
Issues