Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Betting on Organic Bananas

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Aug 12 2006 (IPS) - The government of Honduras and the multinational corporation Chiquita Banana (subsidiary of the U.S.-based United Brands Company) are planning to cultivate 200 hectares of organic banana at the end of the year. “We want to recover the European banana market, where there is now a very strong trend of consuming organic products, and we want to be part of that movement,” Agriculture Minister Héctor Hernández told Tierramérica.

The official said the planting of chemical-free banana trees is part of an exploratory project that aims to break the traditional approach to this crop, centered for more than a century on the country's northern coast.

In Honduras, annual banana exports generate an average of 150 million dollars in revenues, and the sector employs more than 15,000 people. For more than half a century, bananas were the principal export of Honduras.