Originally Posted by Richard

The good news is that if the Cavendish variety becomes commercially nonviable, then we can all start eating better bananas in the U.S.

Originally Posted by Gabe15

As far as resistant varieties go, there are plenty that have been developed, and many more landraces that are naturally resistant to panama disease race 4. The problem is that none are similar enough to Cavendish, either in flavor and texture, culture and management, or shipping and handling ability to take the place of Cavendish.

In Taiwan,... they produce millions and millions of plants annually, they get a lot of "off types" and in the early 90's already found stable mutations of commercial quality Cavendish which are resistant to panama disease race 4. If panama disease race 4 makes in to latin america, my guess is that many growers would try planting a resistant Cavendish before switching varieties altogether.

There are a lot of stories out there about how the banana is "going extinct" and will not be available in 5-10 years....its all very misunderstood and there are solutions out there. Worst case scenario (for the industry), is they would have to switch to something like Goldfinger, which although very different from Cavendish in flavor and texture, is resistant to panama disease race 4. I can't imagine that a banana grower would rather go out of business then try growing a different variety.