Banana production in Brazil
Banana production in Brazil accounts for approximately 10% of the entire world banana production, making Brazil a major banana-producing country in the world. Production has steadily increased over the years, rising from 5.4 million tonnes in 1997 to almost 7 million tonnes in 2007. In 2000, Brazil was fourth, behind India, Uganda and Ecuador, in banana production. By 2006, Brazil became the second largest banana-producer, behind only India, followed by China, Ecuador and the Philippines. Most of the bananas produced are consumed domestically. Gross exports has increased from 12.5 thousand tonnes in 1995 to more than 220 thousand tonnes in 2002 and 2003, mostly to neighbours Argentina and Uruguay, but these figures are still far behind industry leaders such as Ecuador, Costa Rica, the Philippines and Colombia which export more than a million tonnes of bananas annually.
History of modern banana plantations in the Americas
Although banana production for export had begun in much of mainland Central America in the 1880s, its initial impetus was from local small or medium-sized holdings. As infrastructure companies gained control of land around their railroads, however, they used their capacity to create much larger holdings and their control of trade to force the smaller competitors out. In addition they brought in thousands of new workers to labor on these large estates, many from the Pacific side of the country, many others from the English-speaking Caribbean. Company policies often favored the English speakers for higher level jobs, thus the most important positions were held by U. S.-born European-Americans, though African-descended Caribbean people were also favored in lesser but still skilled work.