Chiquita merger reignites fears of a disappearing banana crop

[unhappycamper]

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/10/chiquita-merger-createsworldsbiggestbananacompany.html

Chiquita announces acquisition of competitor Fyffes, but experts worry the world’s banana supply is in danger

Chiquita merger reignites fears of a disappearing banana crop
by Marisa Taylor
March 10, 2014 4:56PM ET

Chiquita Brands International, the U.S.-based global produce company that’s perhaps best known for bananas — as well as for its catchy logo featuring the First Lady of Fruit — announced Monday that it would acquire Fyffes, its Irish rival. The two companies will become one before the end of 2014, making the new firm, ChiquitaFyffes, into the biggest producer and distributor of bananas in the world, with a $4.6 billion in annual revenue.

But sustainability experts worry that the merger will bolster the banana industry’s business model of selling a single variety of banana, which allows producers to better predict ripening time and create economies of scale. And that, they say, increases the possibility that a lethal fungus, Tropical Race 4 — which has already struck bananas in Asia, Africa and the Middle East — will destroy the world’s banana supply.

The average American eats an average of 27 pounds of bananas each year, according to Chiquita, already the world’s largest banana producer in a global export market worth $7 billion, according to Reuters. In fact, Americans eat more bananas than they do apples and oranges combined.

But what most banana lovers don’t know is that the fruit they usually see, cheaply and commonly bought at grocery stores around the globe, comes from a single variety called the Cavendish.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Well I'd be sorry to see bananas disappear

but that may be the price of saying goodby to the Chiquita and Fyffes both of whom are ex United Fruit.

[MisterP]

2. for half a century Gros Michel was the one and only banana type you got in the supermarkets

and for another 60 years the One and Only was the Cavendish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Michel_banana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavendish_banana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Nain

[Fuddnik]

3. Fuck 'em with a pineapple.

I used to eat bananas about every day, until I went on a low carb diet, and saw just how many carbs were in a banana.