You’re in Spain, or perhaps planning to go there, and you’ve got a banana craving. You quickly answer the banana call and then it hits you. A question in a dire need of resolve. Don’t these, like, grow in Spain?
Well, do they? Today’s post, resulting from a similarly silly need for an answer to the one above, will go over whether Spain has bananas and banana plantations, and whether you can find them in such places as the Canaries or Mallorca. Here’s your banana guide for Spain.
Banana plantations in Spain
We saw many banana plantations on our trip to Cyprus, but can you find them in Spain too?
Oh, you can. You can find bananas in Spain because they’re apparently the largest banana producer in Europe.
Banana production and cultivation in Spain, mainly in the Canary Islands, is more than 417,000 tonnes of bananas in 2016 alone. The Canaries produce one tenth of the bananas in the European Union banana supply chain. Sadly, following the volcanic eruption on La Palma, some of Spain’s banana plantations have been completely and irrevocably destroyed.
The regional government of the Canary Islands, an archipelago including La Palma located off the coast of northwest Africa, estimates that the volcano has already caused $116 million in losses for the island’s banana industry.
Almost 30% of the island’s banana plantation owners were affected by the eruption, consequently affecting the European banana market too.
I would have preferred to lose my house instead of my banana trees. The trees give you life, the house gives you nothing.
Said 56-year-old Jesus Pérez from La Palma
(source: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-11-02/banana-farmers-lose-livelihoods-as-lava-devours-spains-la-palma)
No more wondering whether Spain’s got bananas – Spain is bananas.
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