Banana plantation
Banana plants may grow with varying degrees of success in diverse climatic conditions, but commercial banana plantations are primarily found in equatorial regions, in banana exporting countries. The four leading banana export countries worldwide are Ecuador, Costa Rica, Philippines, and Colombia. Ecuador provides more than 33% of global banana exports. In 2004, banana producing countries totaled 130. Production, as well as exports and imports of bananas, are nonetheless concentrated in a few equatorial countries. 75% of total banana production in 2004 was generated in 10 counties. India, Ecuador, Brazil and China produced half of total bananas. Latin American and Caribbean countries led banana production up to the 1980s, and Asian nations took the lead in banana production during the 1990s. African production levels have remained mostly unchanged.
Banana production in the United States
Independent banana cultivation in the United States is diverse, with some areas of the country able to sustain fields of a wide variety of banana trees perennially or near-perennially, similar to a plantation system. This is most notable (outside of Florida and Hawaii) in Texas, Louisiana, California, Arizona, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and coastal North Carolina. In other areas of the country (northern Arkansas, southern Missouri, mountain Tennessee, southern Kansas, the far southern Midwest and along the Ohio river, Kentucky, and Virginia,) containing a climate similar to that of the banana growing region of inland south-central and eastern China (Sichuan, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hubei, Jiangsu, Henan, Jiangxi, Hunan, Chongqing, and Guizhou provinces,) banana cultivation is more seasonal.