Types of banana

A banana produced for export account for around 13% of total world-wide Musa production, and this is almost exclusively Cavendish varieties.

The Cavendish banana the most popular fruit in the United States and Europe is the clone of a sterile mutant banana that has been propagated by human cultivators for millennia.

There are about 55 million tons of Cavendish bananas grown a year worldwide. Cavendish is also produced widely by non-exporting countries, accounting for 35.5% of production in Asia and the Pacific, of which only 5% is exported.

Cavendish banana

Plantains (AAB) are the most important type of Musa produced in West and Central Africa, accounting for 73% of production. However, this only constitutes 44% of global plantain production, with another 40% being produced in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Plantain is a natural hybrid of Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Most of the plantain (AAB) types apparently originated in the Philippines and India, the only Asia regions where there is still a great diversity of plantain cultigens.

Other important sub-group bananas include the East African highland bananas, which constitutes some 72% of bananas grown in the Great Lakes region of East Africa and the Maia Maoli/Popoulu group of bananas which are cultivated throughout the Pacific Islands.
Types of banana