Banana (lat. Músa) is a genus of perennial herbaceous plants of the Banana family (Musaceae), from 2 to 9 m high, with a powerful root system, a stem protruding above the ground and 6-20 leaves. Flowering occurs 8-10 months after the active growth of the plant. Fruits develop only from female flowers. The length of the fruit varies from 3 to 40 cm, the thickness is from 2 to 8 cm. The color of the peel can be yellow, green, red or even silvery. The flesh of the fruit is white, creamy, yellow or orange. In an immature state it is firm and sticky, but as it matures, it becomes soft and juicy. Up to 300 fruits with a total weight of 50-60 kg can be placed on one axis. Bananas have a biological phenomenon known as negative geotropism. During formation, the fruits are directed downward by gravity, however, as they grow under the influence of hormones, one or more axes begin to grow vertically upwards. For the first time, the name Musa, which later became scientific, was assigned to a ...

Banana production began in Ecuador in 1910, however, the industry did not experience a boom until 1948. In 1948, the government of President Galo Plaza began issuing agricultural loans, lowering tariffs, building ports, coastal highways, and made efforts to control pests. At its peak in the mid-1950s Ecuador was the largest banana producer in the world. In 1954 five companies including Standard Fruit, United Fruit, and Noboa handled 80 percent of Ecuador's banana exports. Ten years later there were already 3,000 banana farms in the country, each averaging about 158 acres in size. In 1960, bananas exported from Ecuador accounted for 25 percent of world production, outside the production of all Central American countries. In the late 1950s, a fungal disease called Panama disease caused huge losses in the banana harvest. During the 1960s, agrarian reform caused the fragmentation of land holdings and multinational companies were closed down due to labor problems. Large landowners ...

The flourishing of the banana industry dates back to the second half of the 19th century, when, with the invention of refrigeration, it became possible to transport this product to regions with a temperate climate. Its founders are considered to be two Americans - Lorenzo Baker and Minor Keith, who independently in 1870 and 1872 were engaged in the transportation of these fruits from Latin America to the USA - the first delivered goods from Jamaica to Boston, and the second founded a plantation in Costa Rica and transported products by sea to New Orleans and New York. The first shipments were risky - in the case of an unfavorable wind, the ships lingered on the way, and the goods quickly deteriorated. However, by the beginning of the 20th century business began to develop rapidly and with the light hand of the American writer O. Henry (a series of stories “Kings and Cabbage”) even the term “banana republic” appeared, referring to economically weak states, completely dependent on ...