RusticBohemian

I was looking at this blog entry about the banana issue.

There was one mention of another article where the author discusses cultivars that could replace the cavendish, but the link is dead.

Anyone have that article they could repost, or at least the part about the alternatives that would work?

What ones do you think would work, and why?

I see apple bananas at wholesalers and Asian Markets in the US, so I don't see why they wouldn't work. I've even seen them in a few regular grocery stores. It's also way better tasting than cavendish.

Here in Thailand, Nam Wa is extremely popular, and it's the most widely-grown and cheapest type at the local markets. I've seen it being shipped long distances on trucks, so I have reason to believe it might work for longer sea voyages. Not sure if it can be grown in the Caribbean/South America, though.

Anyone else?

Nicolas Naranja

I actually grow Nam Wah bananas in Florida and my broker has shipped them as far away as Boston. I also ship them to a few local CSAs. The first problem that they have is that they are susceptible to Panama Disease and that is what took out Gros Michel. I think that on average the yields are smaller as well. You also have this huge infrastructure built around cavendish bananas from boxes to ships to ethylene and cooling. That being said,the Nam Wah's major hurdle to market acceptance is the way it looks. The average consumer is expecting a 6-8" long banana that can be eaten slightly green and gets mushy when it turns brown. I wouldn't even touch a slightly green Nam Wah, but I regularly eat some that have basically turned black. If you had a lot of money to throw at the issue you could plant a thousand acres and start a marketing campaign to get people used to the idea. I understand that in Hawaii, the Apple bananas are more popular locally.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

palmtree

I think Ice Cream bananas stand a chance. They arent too widely popular in mainland US (I have seen Apple Bananas here before and I see more Apple Bananas in Hawaii than the others!). I dont really like Apple Bananas. I feel like there really is only a day or 2 when they taste their best, but Ice Cream bananas always taste good when ripe!

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Location: New York City, zone 7b

Bob

Doubt it will ever happen but I'd love to see an effort to bring huge variety to market and therefore educate consumers who would then demand even more varieties.

That said there's occaisionally some organic bananas available here from Ecuador that I think are "nino's". They're very good tasting though an off color.

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Nicolas Naranja

I think that FHIA will come up with a good replacement based on either Cavendish or Gros Michel genetics. My experience with the produce industry though is that you shouldn't see a noticeable change. I have seen outstanding varieties of sweet corn thrown in the rubbish heap because the silk was purple or the cob was purple. It takes 2+ weeks to go from a field in Honduras to your grocery store and not many bananas can handle that

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

venturabananas

For the reasons Nick mentioned, my sense is that the corporate banana business that places Cavendish bananas on grocery store shelves in the western world will only switch to another cultivar when forced to do so by disease and, thus, economics. That was the case with the switch to Cavendish from Gros Michel, which was much easier to transport than Cavendish apparently. There's lots of tasty cultivars and many with resistance to various diseases, but they don't have the same traits as Cavendish varieties and so would require building a different infrastructure for ripening, transport, etc. And the public would have to be learn how to choose and when to eat a different variety.

We have reds, ninos, and manzanos in our local markets, but I never see anyone buy them other than me. I'm surprised the markets keep ordering them since they just sit in the produce section until they go bad. Even the grocery store employees don't know what to do with them.

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Nicolas Naranja

Maybe the biggest chance for change comes from the upcoming demographic shift in this country. In the next few years, less than half of new babies will be non-hispanic white. Generally speaking, hispanic people have a wider use of bananas and plantains that will likely be passed onto their children. 20-30 years from now we may see 30-40% of the population that is familiar with eating varieties other than Cavendish.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

venturabananas

I think that demographic shift, which has already happened in California, is why you can get Nino, Manzano, Reds, and Plantains, in addition to the regular old Cavendish, in some of our supermarkets where I live. It also means that I can go out within a few mile radius of my house to restaurants that are Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, Peruvian, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, etc., which is great!

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Nicolas Naranja

My area is a very diverse mixture of various hispanic and caribbean ethnic groups and we have a decent selection of produce. However, it pales in comparison to what I saw in Puerto Rico. The selection of various root crops alone took up about 30' in a grocery store. They actually had rhino horn plantains which they have a rather lewd name for.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

caliboy1994

It'd be interesting to see what takes over for Cavendish. Maybe one of the FHIA varieties? As for me I'll hope it's something good like a new and improved Ice Cream...

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