Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

Amérique Latine - Caraïbes / Latin America - Caribbean : C. Oliveira de Almeida et al.
Table 1 shows the evolution of Brazilian banana production, import and export
quantities, estimated losses and apparent per capita consumption from 1973 to 1996.
The data make clear that Brazil is not an important banana exporting country, exporting
less than 1% of its production in the past three years, despite being a very important
producing country.
Table 1 also shows that Brazil cannot be considered a banana importing country
since imports were small and very sporadic. One can also see that a large proportion of
the Brazilian banana production, about 40%, is lost. The data in table 1 also show that
Table 1. Matrix of national availability of banana for human consumption
(modified), for the period 1973/96.
Estimates of internal availability
Year Yield Import Export Losses Total (t) Per capita (kg)
(t) (t) 1 (t) (t) Annual Quarter Annual Quarter
1973 3 889 391 0 138 869 1 555 756 2 194 766 - 21.9 -
1974 3 880 371 0 156 826 1 552 148 2 171 397 2 206 066 21.1 21.5
1975 4 000 524 0 148 277 1 600 210 2 252 037 2 283 616 21.4 21.7
1976 4 199 393 0 92 222 1 679 757 2 427 414 2 462 826 22.5 22.8
1977 4 704 260 0 113 529 1 881 704 2 709 027 2 582 526 24.5 23.3
1978 4 576 275 0 134 629 1 830 510 2 611 136 2 629 746 23.0 23.2
1979 4 497 614 0 129 492 1 799 046 2 569 076 2 689 627 22.1 23.2
1980 4 928 506 0 68 435 1 971 402 2 888 669 2 779 240 24.4 23.4
1981 4 920 707 0 72 448 1 968 283 2 879 976 2 899 669 23.8 23.9
1982 4 999 500 0 69 337 1 999 800 2 930 363 2 866 403 23.7 23.1
1983 4 815 184 18 100 242 1 962 074 2 788 868 2 907 820 22.0 23.0
1984 5 178 965 0 103 151 2 071 586 3 004 228 2 946 696 23.2 22.8
1985 5 296 533 0 130 927 2 118 613 3 046 993 3 084 348 23.1 23.4
1986 5 556 749 0 132 226 2 222 700 3 201 823 3 176 626 23.8 23.6
1987 5 659 016 0 114 349 2 263 606 3 281 061 3 248 193 23.9 23.7
1988 5 630 284 0 116 475 2 252 114 3 261 695 3 360 094 23.3 24.0
1989 6 055 225 0 95 608 2 422 090 3 537 527 3 458 414 24.9 24.3
1990 6 056 171 0 57 683 2 422 468 3 576 020 3 559 693 24.7 24.6
1991 6 094 572 0 91 212 2 437 829 3 565 531 3 585 274 24.2 24.4
1992 6 177 567 0 92 269 2 471 027 3 614 271 3 592 285 24.2 24.1
1993 6 145 337 0 90 151 2 458 135 3 597 051 3 645 151 23.7 24.1
1994 6 293 815 38 52 157 2 517 526 3 724 132 3 684 664 24.2 24.0
1995 6 242 412 69 12 638 2 496 965 3 732 809 3 727 437 24.0 23.9
1996 6 259 000 0 30 029 2 503 600 3 725 371 - 23.7 -
Source: Mascarenhas, 1997.
Note: data marked (t) 1 are from FAO, 1998.
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