Berlin/Lima — In the banana plantations of the tropical lowlands of Ecuador, workers are being issued with protective clothing and disinfectant is provided for their tools.
Just as coronavirus ravages the world in the absence of a vaccine, so the banana disease fusarium wilt is marching inexorably around the globe, leaving a trail of scorched plantations in its wake. A strain known as Tropical Race 4 first identified in Taiwan about two decades ago has spread throughout Asia to the Middle East and Africa before its arrival in the banana heartlands of Latin America late in 2019, when it was detected in Colombia.
Add in Covid-19, and “the industry is really at a turning point,” said Pascal Liu, a senior economist at the FAO in Rome and co-ordinator of the World Banana Forum, a stakeholder group for everyone from growers to retailers, NGOs and research institutes. The epidemic caused logistical difficulties at the port, with staff shortages and a lack of temperature controlled containers resulting in temporary interruptions in shipments. There was little or no disruption to work on the plantations, however.
Lower prices limit the ability of producers to respond to environmental concerns over the use of toxic pesticides, which pollute groundwater. They also reduce the possibility of adapting to climate change, whose effects are already being felt in the Caribbean. The Windward Islands have suffered repeat hurricane damage that hit production, while Jamaica has ceased exporting bananas altogether.
The trade became synonymous with US corporate might flexed at the expense of workers and governments in the producer countries, the original “banana republics”. The so-called banana massacre of striking United Fruit Company workers by army troops in 1928 was adapted by Gabriel Garcia Marquez for his novelThe world’s favourite fruit has also earned itself a place in popular culture. The Velvet Underground’s 1967 debut album featured a banana cover by Andy Warhol.
At the Belgian city of Antwerp, the world’s largest banana port, a typical ship will unload more than 2-million bananas packed in 50 containers in a morning. From there, they are taken around Europe by rail, road or barge to be ripened according to taste. Above all in an age of disease, the export trade’s reliance on a single variety, the Cavendish, raises uncomfortable questions about its future viability.
It has been with us for the past two years. It is a disease that affects the intestines. Gauteng has been living with this disease for the past two years. It affected a lot of people in Gauteng. Well provincially it has widened. Our government is not up to STANDARD with diseases