Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

Introduction : J. Chataigner
Introduction
Marchés et commercialisation
des bananes
de consommation locale
Jean Chataigner
Abstract – Markets and sale of bananas for local consumption
The phenomenon most frequently observed in the different situations known and
analysed with regard to bananas for local consumption, in contrast with export “dessert”
bananas, is the growth of markets, with extension of the international market and the
markets in producer and non-producer countries that accompany urbanisation.
The volume and nature of the markets vary. The market is an ethnic one in non-producer
developed countries and forms part of the phenomenon of the diversification of the food
system. In producer countries, the ratio of market volume to production varies
considerably. There is a continuous range of situations in which supply and demand are
dominant respectively, which should lead to different modes of intervention.
However, analysis of supply and demand and their variations is still little developed. It
comes up against considerable statistical difficulties in most countries.
With regard to consumption, various analyses result in observing that although banana
plays an important role in food security for rural households, it also responds in a flexible
manner to the evolution of demand in rural environments. This observation leads to
awarding considerable importance to ongoing changes characterised by a dissociation of
food security requirements and solvent demand.
In all cases, the main preoccupation of marketing agents is the mastery of short and
medium-term variations. The traditional systems often behave satisfactorily where the
state has limited means for intervention. In the situations in which the market is
dominant in relation to production, a search for marketing system effectiveness is
INRA, Montpellier, France.
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