Why Are There Seeds In My Banana? A Look at Ornamental Bananas

In many parts of the world bananas are a staple food, while in other regions they are a highly valued ornamental plant. Bananas are the fourth most important food crop in the world, and they are also used in many other ways—every part of the plant has value. In addition to the standard dessert bananas, there is another group of species in the banana genus that are much less known in the United States but offer some wonderful options as landscape plants. This group of banana species is known as ornamental bananas. This paper sheds some light on ornamental banana cultivars that provide a tropical atmosphere to gardens in the Southeast region of the United States.Crop Production/Industries,

Import demand of Bananas in the European Union

The EU banana market has been of enormous interest for researchers for a long time, especially after the import policy unification brought by the Common Market Organization for Bananas (CMOB) in 1993. Empirical evidence suggests that the CMOB and its subsequent modifications have been highly distorting. However, the quantifications made of those distortions by different authors vary a lot, not only in magnitude but also in direction. The reason is that for each evaluation, a different system of demand equations has been estimated. However, besides the different models used, there is one common denominator to all models. They do not incorporate the general restrictions (homogeneity, symmetry and adding up) necessary to make the demand estimations consistent with economic theory. In this paper we estimate the almost ideal demand system (AIDS) to calculate more reliable elasticities to facilitate future welfare analysis of the EU banana market. The inverse almost ideal demand system (IAIDS) was also estimated under the alternative assumption that import prices adjust to quantities instead to quantities adjusting to price variations as it has usually assumed. However, the results are not reported because due to the upcoming import policy and its subsequent quota elimination, quantities will not longer be predetermined. Preliminary results show that demand elasticities are different depending on the region of origin of the imported bananas. Latin American bananas are substitutes of bananas from preferred suppliers and complements of others while imports from the ACP are substitutes of all regions. EU bananas behave similar to Latin American in the sense that they are substitutes of all by other suppliers. Preliminary welfare analysis of the proposed policy shows that both Latin American producers and EU consumers of Latin American bananas will lost from the quota elimination and increase in the tariff level.International Relations/Trade,

A source-differentiated analysis of tropical fresh fruit imports

A source-differentiated Almost Ideal Demand System model is used to analyze U.S. demand for the major tropical fresh fruit imports from different countries of origin. The tropical fresh fruits chosen for analysis include fresh bananas, fresh pineapples, papayas, and mangoes/guavas. To address endogeneity problem, we utilized an iterative 3SLS estimation method. Results show that consumer incomes are a major determinant of tropical fresh fruit import demand and most of the tropical fresh fruit imports are luxury commodities. U.S. consumers have a preference for Guatemalan and Costa Rican bananas, Costa Rican and Honduras pineapples, and Ecuador and Mexican mangoes. A competitive relationship exists between bananas from Ecuador and Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica, Costa Rica, and Ecuador and bananas in general face competition from the other tropical fresh fruits, particularly from most pineapple and mango sources, and all the other fresh fruit imports. Based on the study findings, the countries of origin could determine how they could increase their products market share in the U.S. and likely impact of price changes of their commodity. For example, Mexico could utilize price competition strategies to retain and regain its declining U.S. mango market share.Tropical Fresh Fruits, Source-Differentiated AIDS model, Import Demand, Crop Production/Industries,

BANANA CULTIVAR TRIALS FOR FRUIT PRODUCTION, ORNAMENTAL-LANDSCAPE USE, AND ORNAMENTAL-NURSERY PRODUCTION IN SOUTH GEORGIA

North America is the largest net importer of bananas on a regional basis. The United States is still the worldÂ’'s number- one importer and consumer of bananas. U.S. companies spend approximately $1.1 billion each year on banana imports, purchasing 31.1% of total world imports (Fonsah 2002; FAO 2001). Bananas and plantains together have been rated the fourth most important crop in the world in terms of food value and food security. This research is aimed at determining the feasibility and suitability of Annual Cropping Production (ACP) for a niche market under Georgia weather conditions and, determining which cultivars have the greatest potential for ornamental-landscape use and ornamental-nursery production. Phenological and pomological sampling and data will be used to analyze the feasibility and suitability of ACP and ornamental use.banana, cultivars, input application, fertility, field operations, production, marketing, quality, landscape, green industry, finger length, calibration, pseudo-stem, Crop Production/Industries,