Extinction threatens – climate change: fungus clogs banana plantations

The wind blows gently in the plantation of the “Cooperativa El Guabo” – apart from the almost terrifying rustle of the leaves, it is quiet between the individual banana trees, which wait in kilometers long rows for their harvest. Before we can enter the yellow biotope of the finca “La Josefina” – an hour’s drive from the city of Guayaquil in southwestern Ecuador – we must submit to strict protective measures. Shoes and car tires are hosed down and we have to wade through a disinfectant tank.

“We must stop the plague”
“The fungus is already raging in nearby Peru. Huge plantations also had to be cut down in Colombia. We must stop the plague called Tropical Race 4. Because otherwise it jeopardizes the survival of thousands of farming families – and then exports too may come to a standstill,” warns manager Darwin Alfredo Rocafuerte Vélez.

But the bananas typical of our supermarkets – named after the Duke of Cornwall William Cavendish, who imported the first bananas of this variety in 1834 and then started cultivation – still come in production line and mostly in organic quality from the dense bunch . They hang on a hook, wrapped in plastic (which has recently been recycled), are carefully quality checked by our own strict food inspector and carefully washed before starting their long journey to us via the Panama Canal and Hamburg.

But against the fungus all care is in vain. Because there is no antidote to the fungus favored by climate change – and genetic engineering is not desired, neither on Finca Josefina, nor in other Fairtrade cooperatives in Latin America.

We are increasingly becoming a “banana republic”
Global warming is also turning Austria into a “banana republic”. Because the summers in this country are becoming more tropical, hotter and more humid, the exotic fruits in many vegetable gardens are already ripening bright yellow. The climate also favors the growth of olives, lemons and oranges.