Bananas are the most consumed tropical fruit in the western world. They are very easy to peel and are very comfortable to eat. No dirty hands. Thanks to refrigerated cargo ships (aka reefers) and refrigerated shipping containers, bananas can be shipped around the world without spoilage. Bananas can be cooled and shipped, when harvested green. Refrigeration slows the ripening process. The ripening is usually done in warehouses at the export destination point with ethylene gas. Bananas are cheap and everybody eats them. It's an ideal product to attract shoppers into supermarkets and that is exactly what is happening nowadays in North America and Western Europe. Banana turnover in western supermarkets could be as much as one percent of the overall turnover, which is considered as an awful lot. It seems there is a banana-price-race-to-the-bottom going on in many western countries. Unfortunately with bad side effects.
