Is Terrorism Behind Mysterious Crop-Duster Crashes in Philippines?
Some relevant information for you:
The Asian suppliers contributed a measly share of 0.04% in the US market for banana with the Philippines having the biggest share, supplying a volume of 1,608 metric tons valued at US$1.9 million.
America gets far and away most of its bananas from South and Central America.
The US is the single biggest importing country of banana with total import volume of 3.8 million tons valued at almost US$1.4billion in 1997. The US has a 28.3% share of the world’s total banana importations. The Latin American countries dominate the US market for banana. Costa Rica and Ecuador are the top exporters capturing half of the US market for banana at a combined volume of 1.8 million tons. Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia have a combined share of 40% of the US market for banana, exporting a volume of 1.5 million metric tons.
The Philippines also exports about roughly 16,000 toms of banana chips to the US. I couldn’t find how large a market share that represents, but I assume it is still significantly less than what we import from Latin America.
I think the concern about Islamic terrorists in the Philippines poisoning our banana supply is probably overstated.
