Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World: Chiquita's Banana profits and new African plantations

Upcoming Events/Recent Media

JUNE 28: Vikram Doctor, writing in The Economic Times of India, features "Banana" in a an amazing two-part series that highlights the stunning diversity of his country's banana crop. This is truly a great article - you'll find dozens of different banana types listed here, along with stories about the way people eat (and love) the fruit in the world's top banana-growing (and most banana-crazed) nation. Part one here, part two here.
JUNE 20: One of my favorite public radio programs - NPR's To The Point, syndicated out of my local station, KCRW, interviews me about the future of the banana.
JUNE 20: The Daily Green uses the book and my New York Times column to put rising banana prices in historical context.
JUNE 19: Stephen J. Dubner, writing in his Freakonomics blog, says that my article answers a question he's "long wondered about: why are bananas so cheap relative to other fruit, especially since a lot of the fruit we consume in the U.S. is grown here while bananas are not?" (The book goes into detail about this, and more, of course!)
JUNE 19: Lewis Lapham, in The Huffington Post, writes about the book and the history of the banana republics in Central America.
JUNE 19: WFMY News, Greensboro/Winston-Salem/Highpoint, North Carolina, offers a video report on banana prices; I'm interviewed in it. Video here. Article here.
JUNE 18: Paul Krugman, again in his NYT blog, recommends the book.
JUNE 10: Guest spot on "After Hours," Canada's Business News Network. Go here; my segment is about three-fourths of the way in. (I have to say, I need some practice for television.)
MAY 22: Johann Hari, in The Independent, explains why "bananas are a parable for our times," and describes the book as "brilliant." This story was picked up in dozens of other media outlets.
MAY 14: I absolutely love Scienceblogs.com - there are over a dozen essential commentators writing there - and one of my favorites is Razib Khan, who runs the Gene Expressions blog. He did an extended and thoughtful review of the book and the issues surrounding it.
APRIL 23: Steve Mirsky interviewed me for the Scientific American's podcast. Topic: "Can Science Save the Banana?" Listen here. This was a fun one.
APRIL 20: Paul Krugman, blogging in the New York Times, recommends my book. He's reading an electronic version of it on an Amazon Kindle.
MARCH 17: The Nation calls "Banana" a "tale of a threatened species and the scientific heroes hunting to save the fruit," and a book with "a driving force and an urgency."
MARCH 13: Banana on American Public Media's "Splendid Table" - the ultimate radio show for foodies. Station listing here. Direct download here. Podcast here.
MARCH 8: Toronto Globe & Mail (March 8, 2008 ) calls "Banana" a "hard-nosed journalistic account" and "the book you've been looking for if you've heard rumours that the phallic golden fruit that adorns the breakfast table might be heading for extinction."
FEBRUARY 18: "Banana" on NPR's "Fresh Air." Download/Podcasts here.
FEBRUARY 14: Leonard Lopate's "Underreported," WNYC (New York Public Radio). Listen here.
FEBRUARY 11: Interview on Public Radio International's "Marketplace." Listen here.

"Banana" in the Blogs

Chiquita's Banana profits and new African plantations

Just a couple of quick notes from Chiquita's first-quarter financial report, issued May 1. The company made a $31.7 million profit - after losing $3.4 million the same period last year - fueled mostly by surging banana prices. What's interesting is that the actual amount of bananas people bought dropped - by one percent in the U.S., and fourteen percent in Europe - but because of bad weather and other market conditions that have constrained supply, prices have shot up: by 18% and 26% in the two selling areas, respectively. This made Chiquita CEO Fernando Aguirre very happy: "Banana pricing is very acceptable," he told investors, noting that prices have held pretty steady for over a decade.

The other bit of interesting news is the soon-to-come opening of the first big Chiquita plantations in Africa, in Mozambique and Angola. The reason these commercial banana farms are being launched on that continent is to get around European tariff regulations that make Latin America-originated bananas expensive to sell in Europe. But it was the cutting of land for new Cavendish (that's the world's commercial banana) plantations in Asia two decades ago that led to the spread of Panama Disease there; that malady is now epidemic and threatens the world's banana supply. There was no mention in Chiquita's earnings call - nor has the company ever mentioned - what precautions it is taking to make sure the new plantations it is opening, or the transportation networks that connect the plantations to shipping areas, will be effectively sealed from existing banana crops. I can't even begin to state how important this is in Africa, where bananas are a major subsistence crop, though I can tell you why Chiquita has made no such statement: because it has been proved, over and over, that it can't be done.

And in good news, Chiquita has just posted a fantastic "cool stuff" page, with tons of old print and television ads, banana stickers, and other archival material. I'll highlight some of it in the future, but it is definitely worth exploring.

News article on Chiquita's earnings call here. Download a pdf of Chiquita's results here. Listen to audio here.

Posted on May 05, 2008 in Banana News | Permalink

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Filmmakers Under Fire

"The Affected" is a new documentary that chronicles the lives of banana and sugar plantation workers in modern-day Latin America - and has uncovered a startling, ongoing nightmare: an epidemic of kidney failure among sugar workers, possibly related to pesticide exposure. The work the filmmakers have been doing has led to the killing of one crew member, and threats on the lives of others. You can read more about "The Affected" - and learn how you can help - here.

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