Description

A banana is an edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called “plantains”, distinguishing them from dessert bananas.

The fruit is variable in size, color, and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind, which may be green, yellow, red, purple, or brown when ripe.

The fruits grow in clusters hanging from the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible seedless (parthenocarp) bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of most cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, and Musa × paradisiaca for the hybrid Musa acuminata × M. balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific name for this hybrid, Musa sapientum, is no longer used.

Musa species are native to tropical Indomalaya and Australia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea. They are grown in one hundred and thirty-five (135) countries, primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to make fiber, banana wine, and banana beer and as ornamental plants.

The world’s largest producers of bananas in 2017 were India and China, which together accounted for approximately thirty-eight percent (38%) of total production.

Worldwide, there is no sharp distinction between “bananas” and “plantains”. Especially in the Americas and Europe, “banana” usually refers to soft, sweet, dessert bananas, particularly those of the Cavendish group, which are the main exports from banana-growing countries. By contrast, Musa cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called “plantains”.

In other regions, such as Southeast Asia, many more kinds of banana are grown and eaten, so the binary distinction is not useful and is not made in local languages.

The banana industry is an important part of the global industrial agrobusiness. About fifteen percent (15%) of the global banana production goes to export and international trade for consumption in Western countries. They are grown on banana plantations primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Central and South America.

In 2017, imports of bananas worldwide totaled twenty-one million (21,000,000) tonnes, approximately reflecting the previous year level. The total import volume increased at an average annual rate of + 1.8% over the period from 2007 to 2017; the trend pattern remained consistent, with only minor fluctuations being recorded in certain years. The pace of growth was the most pronounced in 2010 when import increased by five percent (5%) year-to-year. Global import peaked in 2017, and is likely to see steady growth in the near future.

In value terms, banana imports stood at $15B in 2017. The total import value increased at an average annual rate of +3.2% over the period from 2007 to 2017; the trend pattern remained relatively stable, with only minor fluctuations in certain years. Over the period under review, banana imports reached its maximum level in 2017, and are expected to retain its growth in the immediate term.

In 2017, the U.S. (3.6M tonnes), distantly followed by Russia (1.5M tonnes), Belgium (1.4M tonnes), Germany (1.4M tonnes), the UK (1.2M tonnes), China (1M tonnes), and Japan (986K tonnes) were the major importers of bananas, together mixed up fifty-three percent (53%) of total imports. Italy (775K tonnes), the Netherlands (733K tonnes), France (687K tonnes), Canada (598K tonnes), and Argentina (489K tonnes) followed a long way behind the leaders.

Nigeria has one of the largest agricultural sectors in Africa. This industry contributes about forty percent (40%) of the country’s GDP and employs up to seventy percent (70%) of the Nigerian workforce. Nigeria is blessed with abundant lands, resources, and climatic conditions that allow her to produce different varieties of food and cash crops in its agricultural sector while facilitating the accelerated growth of the individual agribusiness sub-sectors.

One of such agribusiness that contributes to the food and economic value of the country is Banana farming in Nigeria.

Nigeria is among the largest banana producing countries in African providing about two million, eight hundred thousand (2,800,000) million tonnes of banana per year.

Also it is the largest plantain producing country in West Africa. It is widely produced in the South and Central regions of Nigeria such as; Oyo, Edo, Ondo Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Ogun States, Cross River, Ebonyi Abia, Ekiti, Imo, Plateau, Osun, Kogi, Anambra and Enugu.

Bananas are usually consumed in their raw form in Nigeria without any value and a lot of the product is wasted due to lack of proper handling and storage facilities.

Banana chips are dried slices of bananas (fruits of herbaceous plants of the genus Musa of the soft, sweet “dessert banana” variety). They can be covered with sugar or honey and have a sweet taste, or they can be fried in oil and spices and have a salty or spicy taste.

Banana chips are similar to plantain chips, usually made from firmer, starchier fruit varieties of the genus Musa commercially called plantains or cooking bananas.

There are two different methods for making banana chips. One of these is to deep fry thin slices of banana in hot oil, in the same way as potato chips or crisps. The other is to dry slices of banana, either in the sun or using a solar or artificial dryer.

This report seeks to examine the financial viability or otherwise of producing banana chips from fresh banana using oven dry process in Nigeria.

The proposed production volume is five hundred (500) kilogrammes per hour of fresh banana and the plant would operate at eighty percent (80%) of the installed capacity for a triple shift of eight (8) hours per day for three hundred (300) working days per annum.