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Nicaragua Bananas
Unlike in other Central American countries, political
squabbles over who would control the plantations and
shipment of
the crop prevented bananas from becoming the major export
earner
in Nicaragua. Bananas, a native fruit of tropical Asia,
were
introduced to Nicaragua early in the colonial period.
Initially,
until a market for them appeared in the United States in
the
1860s, bananas, like other fruit, were destined mostly for
local
consumption. Small plots of the Gros Michael variety of
banana
were planted for export, but political turmoil and
difficulties
in establishing secure transportation routes hampered
export.
Because United States companies developed banana
production in
neighboring countries, Nicaragua's large potential for
this crop
remained underdeveloped.
Politics and outbreaks of disease in the 1900s kept
banana
production low. During their time in power, the Somoza
family,
who had discovered that coffee and cattle were more
profitable,
than bananas, refused to give United States banana
companies the
free rein that they enjoyed throughout the rest of Central
America. In addition, an outbreak of Panama disease, a
fungus
that kills the plant's underground stem, wiped out most of
the
banana plantations in the early 1900s. New plants of the
Valery
and Giant Cavendish variety were planted, but constant use
of
fungicides was required to control black sigatoka disease.
Although Cavendish bananas yield three times the harvest
of the
older Gros Michael type, Cavendish bananas are more
difficult to
harvest and transport, Cavendish bananas, for example,
bruise
easily and must be picked at an earlier stage and crated
in the
fields for transport. Most banana production is in the
Pacific
lowlands, in a region extending north from Lago de Managua
to the
Golfo de Fonseca. In 1989, banana production amounted to
132,000
tons.
Data as of December 1993
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