The origin of the banana tree is the Southeast of Asia, although the commercial culture originated in the Canary Islands, Spain, place where they are still produced.

At the moment, the world production amounts for 58 million tons and the main producing countries are South America, Central America and Asia.

The banana tree originates from the Southeast of Asia. From this origin it begun a long journey towards all the tropical and subtropical areas of the world. The first news on this species go back to the drawings found in the old ruins of the Java monument to Buddha, raised in Bordodur in 850 B.C. It is known in the Mediterranean 650 A.D. This species arrived at the Canary Islands in the XVth century; from there it was taken to America in 1516. The selected cultivars were introduced in the islands at the beginning of the XIXth century. The commercial production in the Canary Islands begins in the late part of the XIXth century and beginning of the XXth century.

The world production is:

Continent	Thousand tons	%
Africa	7,232	12
Asia	26,588	45
Europe	425	1
North America	7,943:14
Oceania	951	2
South America	15,291	26
Total	58,430	100

Source: Fresh Produce Desk Book (1999)

The main producing countries of banana tree and banana in each continent are:

Country	Thousand tons
	Banana tree	Banana
India	10,200F(*)	-
Ecuador	7,494F	894F
Brazil	5,551	-
China	3,241F	-
Colombia	2,200F	2,597F
Costa Rica	2,200F	100F
Burundi	1,399	-
Uganda	585F	9,250F
Spain	410	-
Haiti	288	290F

Source: FAO Production Yearbook (1998)

(*) Value estimated by the FAO.

The main export countries are:

Country	Thousand $
Ecuador	1,070,125
Bel-Lux	759,202
Costa Rica	601,029
Colombia	476,102
The Philippines	217,040
France	189,136
Ivory coast	87,000
The Netherlands	75,608
Spain	74,587
Germany	72,789

Source: The FAO Trade Yearbook (1998)

The main import countries are the USA with 4,110,949, Japan with 864,854 and France with 315,148 thousand tons.

Therefore, the banana is easily found in all the markets and points of sale, being the world production around 58,000 thousand tons and the main producing countries South America, Central America and Asia. In Europe, the main producing centre are the Canary Islands, Spain, 440.000tm in a surface of 8.500ha devoted to production.

Since the implantation of the banana’s Common Market Organization (CMO), bananas from other countries are imported into Spain.

More than 90% of the Spanish production is marketed in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). The rest in the Canary Islands. Export outside the peninsula is only testimonial.