Bananas and Blight – An Illustration In The Complexity of Global Trade

WASHINGTON, DC, April 1, 2023 – In many ways, there isn’t a better example of the complexity of global trade than the banana, the world’s most exported fruit.

“I always say that if you look at a banana on the shelf in the United Kingdom for example, half of the cost of the banana is the food, and half is shipping and logistics."

Jeffrey Hall, the chairman of Kingston Wharves and chief executive officer of Jamaica Producers Group - which is involved in pretty much every aspect of trade you can imagine - including exporting bananas, explains.

“We are in the thick of the business of trade,” he says from his office right at the port in Kingston, Jamaica.

Bananas, a crop exported from the Caribbean for centuries, provide countless jobs across continents. But getting fruit from one side of the world to another, isn’t easy.

It used to be what he calls a “treasure hunt of stamps and documents” to get permissions and paperwork for his various businesses, but Jeffrey says that things are improving thanks to trade agreements, like the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA). “I don’t think we could do it without a mindset of trade facilitation,” he adds.

Trade facilitation is also crucial for another aspect of the global banana trade, and that is, keeping pests and diseases from spreading.

Bananas, shipped around the globe in huge volumes, have become something of a victim of their own success, as the banana variety most consumers worldwide prefer currently is the Cavendish, with its smooth yellow skin. This means many plantations are monocultures, which make them vulnerable.

The Cavendish variety was cultivated to be resilient to a highly contagious disease, caused by a fungus - called Tropical Race 4 (TR-4). The TR-4 resistant Cavendish replaced the previous world leader the Gros Michel, which was the banana of choice in the early twentieth century, until it was all but wiped out in many areas.

But, a new strain of the fungus has been obliterating banana plantations in some parts of the world, including in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. It is spread with soil, and procedures and border management are crucial in keeping the disease from spreading. This is where another aspect of trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, comes in.

Altus Viljoen is an expert in the banana sector and TR-4, he’s from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.

“This is a serious disease make no mistake… we have seen big plantations destroyed within four years. The economic impact and impact on job losses is huge.”

Shane Sela, Senior Trade Facilitation Specialist (SPS) at the World Bank Group says there are big hurdles to face for border agencies, and others involved in keeping all kinds of pests from spreading: “In developing countries the capacities and the resources available to make these assessments is that much harder. It makes it even more challenging for countries to be on the forefront of managing those risks."

Altus agrees that people play a big role: “While there are limited ways you can introduce it (TR-4) it is just incredible how it comes into Asia, the Middle East and Latin America - it is happening - and it’s usually because of human mistake.”

Altus and his colleague Diane Mostert are working alongside several African countries to try and help put in place measures to keep TR-4 at bay. Diane says that she sees the “golden standard of biosecurity” as Australia - and they are working with the Australian experts in places, like Tanzania.

For now the banana blight has not spread in Africa outside northern Mozambique, but the impact at the farm where it was discovered, was devastating. The farm it wiped out was called Matanuska, it’s now run by Gladys Tazan, originally from Ecuador, she's working for the company Jacaranda.

“They (the previous owners) fought with the disease and they lost the farm,” she says. It's now up and running with a new variety of banana, and strict biosecurity measures - it’s a “quarantined farm” says Gladys meaning no external vehicles allowed and all boots must be replaced when people enter the farm which has fencing all around.

For exporters and producers like Jeffrey Hall in Jamaica, and for Gladys Tazan in Mozambique, and so many others, the ever-popular banana will continue to be a profitable fruit bowl staple. But the banana's story is a timely reminder of how important global trade is for our interconnected world. “The banana is the essential livelihood here,” says Gladys. “It is the only crop we can grow all year round. It supports so family families.”

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Support for the initiative was provided by the World Bank Group with funding from the Trade Facilitation Support Program (TFSP). The TFSP is funded by nine donor partners: Australia, Canada, the European Commission, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom. This initiative provides assistance to countries seeking to align their trade practices with the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA).

To learn more, listen to this related episode of Trade Tips – the World Bank Group’s new podcast that tackles the big issues in the world of trade and explores solutions.