Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

48 Les productions bananières / Bananas and food security – Session 1
this situation is as expected: people of lower economic level spend more money buying
more essential food (like beans, rice and cassava flour), while higher income people buy
a more diversified kind of food.
Table 6 shows the percentage of income spent on bananas, in comparison with total
food costs, for the population of several state capitals in Brazil. It appears that, in
general, the situation is similar to that of the country as a whole. Families living in
regions of high per capita income, such as southern and south-eastern Brazil, where the
cities of Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are
situated, spent less of their income buying bananas than families living in regions of
lower per capita income, such as the north and north-east, where the cities of Belém,
Fortaleza, Recife and Salvador are located, although in Salvador the percentage of
income spent on bananas in comparison with the total spent with food is lower than in
Rio de Janeiro. Table 6 also shows that, except for Belo Horizonte and Salvador, families
with higher per capita income spent less on bananas. For Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Recife
and São Paulo, the part of the population which spent more buying bananas is that
which makes from two to three times the minimal salary/month. On the other hand, for
Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, the part of the population which spent more buying
bananas is that which makes three to five times the minimal salary/month. In Belém and
Fortaleza the part of the population which makes five to six times minimal salary/month
spent more money buying bananas. Only in Belo Horizonte people who make up to twice
the minimal salary spend more buying bananas than the others, in comparison with total
food costs.
Table 6. Percentage of costs for bananas in comparison with total food costs in Brazil
in 1996, for several Brazilian States capitals.
Capitals of States
Minimal Belém Belo Curitiba Fortaleza Porto Recife Rio de Salvador São
salary/month Horizonte Alegre Janeiro Paulo
Total 1.18 1.00 0.86 1.19 0.82 1.23 1.06 1.05 0.63
Up to 2 1.03 1.66 1.05 1.39 1.39 1.25 0.83 0.66 0.77
From 2 to 3 1.27 1.10 1.12 1.72 1.43 1.72 1.45 0.68 0.83
From 3 to 5 1.26 1.40 0.79 1.46 0.93 1.44 1.66 1.26 0.76
From 5 to 6 1.55 0.68 0.79 1.76 0.80 1.22 0.86 1.22 0.75
From 6 to 8 1.21 0.73 0.80 1.28 0.91 1.15 1.12 1.01 0.73
From 8 to 10 1.02 1.13 1.00 0.94 1.00 1.54 1.46 1.18 0.60
From 10 to 15 1.45 0.96 0.74 1.16 0.87 1.45 0.95 1.42 0.74
From 15 to 20 1.05 1.07 0.62 1.16 0.86 0.98 0.90 0.83 0.67
From 20 to 30 1.10 0.87 0.48 0.72 0.78 1.25 0.79 1.54 0.73
Over 30 0.96 0.88 0.48 0.59 0.54 0.83 0.79 0.80 0.46
No information 1.65 1.05 0.63 0.97 0.63 1.14 1.11 1.35 0.28
Source: IBGE, 1998. Organization: Embrapa-Cnpmf
Note: Minimal salary in 1996 equals to R$112.00.