The banana trade has branded as scaremongering media coverage that points to the imminent extinction of Cavendish bananas.
The Food & Agriculture Organisation warned that with eco-system destruction comes the risk that valuable genetic sources - which could help in the development of disease resistance - are lost.
Cavendish is far and away the leading commercial banana in the world and is reportedly losing its resistance to Panama disease.
A wide cross-section of the British media has therefore delighted in predicting the demise of the nation’s favourite fruit.
“Cavendish is resistant to Panama disease, but a new strain - TR4 - is spreading in Cavendish plantations in Asia,” said Anne Vézina of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana & Plantain (Inibap). Her organisation co-ordinates research projects in major production - although not necessarily exporting - areas. “We do not believe that the banana is doomed, but that we may see the end for Cavendish as we did for Gros Michel which was wiped out by Panama disease in the 1950s,” she told freshinfo.
But JP Fruit’s Dickon Poole says each company and plantation deals with disease on a day-to-day basis. “I don’t see why this should be any different,” he said. “I think this is just scaremongering.”
Peter Miller, md of Del Monte Fresh Produce (UK), condemned the coverage as “hogwash”. He said Panama disease is a generic term for fusarium fungal infection. “There are outbreaks of TR4 in South East Asia, but nothing in Central and South America or Africa.”
Bernard Cornibert, managing director of Windwards Bananas was equally scathing. “This is a re-run of an old story,” he said. “Black Sigatoka has been there for a long while, but the Windward Islands do not have it. We have a yellow strain, but we don’t have to spray as much.”
He believes it could be decades before TR4 Panama spreads to export production areas. “Black Sigatoka is airborne and can be transmitted by humans. So it could take a while for Panama to reach any other regions particularly if there is not heavy migration of people between the regions. This will not kill the banana outright.”
The banana industry continues to work on developing disease-resistant varieties, he said, and advances are being made all the time. But it is a question of coming up with a commercial variety that most importantly has excellent taste.
Inibap has an exhibit - No End to the Banana - at the Eden Project in Cornwall for the next three months. “We hope that after seeing this exhibit, people will start demanding a wider diversity of bananas,” said Vézina.
“We are asking what do you want from a banana? Low pricing? Sustainability? Consumers in the UK already have other varieties to choose from, but these occupy a very small share of the market and there are many more to choose from.”
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