Hahaha. I am reminded of a time when UFC wasn’t a form of gladatorial combat, but stood for the United Fruit Company, and “Gunboat Diplomacy”, Banana Wars, Teddy Roosevelt carrying a “ Big Stick”, and “Banana Republics” not being in every mall.
Is having only one type of banana in non-banana countries part of the problem? Do different types of apples compete against each other and create a more vibrant apple market whereas a banana is a banana is a banana? I remember when the only choices were mushy Red Delicious, tart Granny Smiths and mushy and tart Macintoshes, all of which are awful. Now I can't wait to try new things. In fact, when I visited to England I went to the store looking for local varieties to try.
Also, is another part of the problem that bananas are crap? Baby food in a pod. Says the person eating a Cosmic Crisp.
It's less to do with economics and more about biology. Apple trees are flowering plants which reproduce sexually, keeping the genetic diversity of apples relatively high and leading more naturally to a wide variety of cultivars. Banana trees reproduce asexually by saplings falling or being cut from the tree and growing into trees of their own; bananas are largely clones of one another.
Great article. I've spent most of my career in the food industry, and claim experience "From Farm to Fork." Most people can only conceive of the supply chain as it presents at their local grocery, but start talking about foodservice, or industrial, and their eyes quickly gloss over. They simply have no frame of reference for the volume of material or all the steps of production, processing, and distribution. Even having spent most of my life in the industry, I've still marveled at, say a load of raw spinach, the size of a 40' bail of hay, or a mound or sugar beets 100 yards wide, and 300 yards long. Or, thinking of all the labor and capital necessary for a single potato to be grown, harvested, stored, processed, packaged, shipped—and I can buy the final product at a McD's for a couple of dollars. It may not be a miracle, but it's about as close as we can get.
Of course, Windward Island bananas are the curvy ones, and a different strain, made second class by the EU to protect the German dominated import industry into the EU, and denying the Commonwealth Preference that saw them dominate supply in the UK before the EEC. Not as flavoursome, it has to be said.
Having spent time in both Mexico and Colombia, I know that several different varieties are sold in local markets, some consumed unripe in cooking usually known as platanos.
There is doubtless a big prize for evolving a disease resistant cultivar. I doubt the Cavendish family benefited in the way of a modern agribusiness. Of course, they contributed much over the generations, including the first measurement of Newton's gravitational constant G, and the establishment of the eponymous physics lab at Cambridge.
Ed, could the disparity in price be the consumer price index? Is a banana included? As like milk and bread and other staples are they artificially low in price to help keep government inflation figures down?
Or could it be that the country of origins are all fighting for the EU British market so perhaps it’s a cost they fight each other over?
Or is it that the country of origin has a poor or weak economy and so don’t put up prices in fear of losing the market they need?
As I think the cost of transport is huge! So I think they should be dearer to reflect that?
One perspective could help explain the difference in pricing: the purchasing power of final users. Bananas are a key industrial input whereas apples tend not to be. Some of the biggest food manufacturers use bananas to produce their foods and they're able to leverage their buying power far more than individual buyers.
Hahaha. I am reminded of a time when UFC wasn’t a form of gladatorial combat, but stood for the United Fruit Company, and “Gunboat Diplomacy”, Banana Wars, Teddy Roosevelt carrying a “ Big Stick”, and “Banana Republics” not being in every mall.
I want nothing more than to try a Gros Michel now. Thanks Ed - super interesting as ever.
Reading Material World ATM and really enjoying it too 👍
Is having only one type of banana in non-banana countries part of the problem? Do different types of apples compete against each other and create a more vibrant apple market whereas a banana is a banana is a banana? I remember when the only choices were mushy Red Delicious, tart Granny Smiths and mushy and tart Macintoshes, all of which are awful. Now I can't wait to try new things. In fact, when I visited to England I went to the store looking for local varieties to try.
Also, is another part of the problem that bananas are crap? Baby food in a pod. Says the person eating a Cosmic Crisp.
It's less to do with economics and more about biology. Apple trees are flowering plants which reproduce sexually, keeping the genetic diversity of apples relatively high and leading more naturally to a wide variety of cultivars. Banana trees reproduce asexually by saplings falling or being cut from the tree and growing into trees of their own; bananas are largely clones of one another.
Great article. I've spent most of my career in the food industry, and claim experience "From Farm to Fork." Most people can only conceive of the supply chain as it presents at their local grocery, but start talking about foodservice, or industrial, and their eyes quickly gloss over. They simply have no frame of reference for the volume of material or all the steps of production, processing, and distribution. Even having spent most of my life in the industry, I've still marveled at, say a load of raw spinach, the size of a 40' bail of hay, or a mound or sugar beets 100 yards wide, and 300 yards long. Or, thinking of all the labor and capital necessary for a single potato to be grown, harvested, stored, processed, packaged, shipped—and I can buy the final product at a McD's for a couple of dollars. It may not be a miracle, but it's about as close as we can get.
These “simple” monoculture systems are all ultimate failures. The potato famine in Ireland was likely the first example
No discussion of bananas is complete without remembering Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat Song
https://youtu.be/7cm324UN68A?si=IY0jMNJiyAocBejG
Of course, Windward Island bananas are the curvy ones, and a different strain, made second class by the EU to protect the German dominated import industry into the EU, and denying the Commonwealth Preference that saw them dominate supply in the UK before the EEC. Not as flavoursome, it has to be said.
Having spent time in both Mexico and Colombia, I know that several different varieties are sold in local markets, some consumed unripe in cooking usually known as platanos.
There is doubtless a big prize for evolving a disease resistant cultivar. I doubt the Cavendish family benefited in the way of a modern agribusiness. Of course, they contributed much over the generations, including the first measurement of Newton's gravitational constant G, and the establishment of the eponymous physics lab at Cambridge.
Ed, could the disparity in price be the consumer price index? Is a banana included? As like milk and bread and other staples are they artificially low in price to help keep government inflation figures down?
Or could it be that the country of origins are all fighting for the EU British market so perhaps it’s a cost they fight each other over?
Or is it that the country of origin has a poor or weak economy and so don’t put up prices in fear of losing the market they need?
As I think the cost of transport is huge! So I think they should be dearer to reflect that?
One perspective could help explain the difference in pricing: the purchasing power of final users. Bananas are a key industrial input whereas apples tend not to be. Some of the biggest food manufacturers use bananas to produce their foods and they're able to leverage their buying power far more than individual buyers.
Gros Michel bananas are smaller, a little bit more tart and plantain ish, but I’m not sure about them being sweeter.
Very helpful article, thank you. Did you get a sense of how optimistic, or not, people are about breeding TR-4-resistant bananas?
i kept waiting for you to talk about apples but you nevwr did. unfiahed essay!!!