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.
Thottiyam
Thottiyam is essentially an agricultural area; its main crops are paddy, plantains and petals. Large quantities of plantains and petals are sent to other States, including exports to Middle East. Thottiyam is one largest producer of Banana Fruit in Tamilnadu. Banana is one of the fruit with short life span of few days. The Banana Farmers in this region faced frequent issue of price drop and wastage due to short life span to over come this issue the farmers of Thottiyam region formed a farmers self help group known as Thottiam Banana Producer Group to produce value added products from Banana under the brand name of Madhur Fruits and producing Solar dried banana, Banana Chocolates, Banana Cookies and Banana Powders from fresh bananas. This products were marketed under brand name of Madhur Fruits and available throughout India and outside of India.