The
cherished
fruit
Brazilians consume bananas to such an
extent that 98%of the entire national
crop is destined for the domesticmarket
There is no doubt about it, this fruit is in-
creasingly preferred by Brazilian consum-
ers. Such a success explains the numbers
in domestic consumption. Now, more than
98% of the entire crop supplies the domes-
tic market. According to the latest consoli-
dated data furnished by the Municipal Ag-
ricultural Production (MAP) of the Brazilian
Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE),
in 2016 alone fruit production amounted
to 6,764,324 tons, produced in an area of
469,711 hectares. Despite the lower crops
over the past years, due to cultivation prob-
lems, which made farmers, especially the
technology deficient ones, switch to other
crops, productivity has continued stable.
Researcher Áurea Fabiana Apolinário de
Albuquerque Gerum, from Embrapa Cassa-
va and Fruticulture, in Cruz das Almas (BA),
explains that accuratemanagement carried
out by technology-equipped farmers trans-
lates into satisfactory results. In the 2016
crop year, the average achieved by the
Country was 14,686 kilograms per hectare,
outstripping the two previous crops. Now-
adays, the main banana producing states
are as follows: São Paulo, with 1,089,820
Sílvio Ávila
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