The major exporting countries are currently facing a major crisis, with fungal diseases threatening to wipe out the plantations permanently. While the banana industry, including the Honduran Foundation for Agricultural Research (FHIA) and the International Network for the Improvement of Bananas and Plantains in France, see the disease as a possible indicator of the demise of the fruit, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) disagrees. According to the industry, because existing banana plants are reproduced from cuttings, there is little genetic diversity and diseases, in particular fungus, can rapidly wipe out entire production regions. But according to the FAO, the export varieties make up only about 10% of the total world banana crop, and the produce of small-scale farmers in developing countries, which do not enter significantly into world trade, retain far greater genetic diversity.

The world’s first known organized banana plantation is known to have existed in China, back in the year 200 AD. Indian traders introduced the banana to Madagascar and Zanzibar, while, in 650 AD, Islamic conquerors brought the banana to West Asia, from where Arabic merchants spread the fruit all over Africa and much of Europe. It was only in 1502 that the Portuguese started the first banana plantations in the Caribbean and in Central America, the region that accounts for the bulk of banana exports today.