Bananas are far and away the most popular fruit in New Zealand – apples are a distant second. But the vast majority are imported from places like Ecuador and the Philippines, with huge costs environmentally and to the lives of the people who produce them. Workers in the Philippines can spend their whole lives on the plantation, suffering gruelling conditions, low wages and exposure to harmful pesticides in order to feed Kiwi customers.
So why don’t we grow them here? It’s long been assumed that producing bananas commercially is not possible in New Zealand. But Trevor Mills, Tai Pukenga banana project manager, argues that’s no longer the case. The warming climate and further research into the viability of banana crops is seeing a boom in production across the motu.
In fact, proof of concept has existed at a hobbyist level for almost 70 years. From the mid-1950s Roger Bodle, a guy out in Ormond, has been growing bananas. Now in his 80s now he’s been growing bananas since he was given a plant when he was 13.”
“And as the climate becomes more tropical, tropical fruits are going to really enjoy it. On the flip side, if there is an accelerating change to a more tropical climate as it looks like we’re seeing, crops like grapes and kiwifruit and apples could struggle.”
. “Bananas almost propagate themselves”, says Mills, “with a single plant potentiating many more – and quickly.
“The planting rate that we calculate is about 500 plants per acre, or 1,000 per hectare. If you put 100 plants in, within 18 months you’re going to get up to five or six suckers, or second generation plants, growing around the original plant. That’s when your total number of plants from the original 100 can get up to 400 or 500 by the second generation.”
Approximately 35,000 cartons of bananas arrive in New Zealand every week from South America alone, says Mills. The fruit is still green and must be sprayed with ethylene in order for their skin to turn yellow. But internally, they remain a substandard product. “We’ve proved with our trials that we can produce a superior product here in taste and sweetness and flavour, without the chemicals.”
Mills says banana crops are an increasingly attractive possibility for Māori incorporations, creating employment and a more productive and less intensive form of farming than running livestock. “I’ve been in talks with Te Puni Kokiri and they’re keen to motivate a number of Māori incorporations from places like the East Cape right down to Wairarapa in the south. They can see the potential that horticulture has to create more employment for Māori, more investment and more productive use of the land, rather than just having a few sheep on land that is tailor-made for horticulture.’
NIWA scientist Bernard Milville has established a plot in Nūhaka, utilising his background to locate a site he believes is suitable for growing bananas and other tropical crops
“That will really be a demonstration to the local farmers that there is potential in growing bananas. And that grassroots development is the secret I think. If you get the right sort of people pushing the right sort of vision, it’s amazing. Northland growers have got a three to four-year head start on this, and I know one grower up there can take 100kg of bananas to the Whangarei farmers market and sell them in half an hour at $8 a kg.
“People will pay that, no questions asked, because of the superior product that the bananas are. The possibilities for farmers and the environment are massive.”
