So-called 'dollar banana' exporting countries are in Central and South America. In descending order of export volumes they are: Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Peru. They are known as 'dollar' countries because they traditionally fall within the influence of the US dollar, but also because the growth of their banana industry was usually associated with the US-based multinational companies that control directly or indirectly around 60% of their banana exports. Even in Ecuador where the multinationals own almost no land of their own, Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita are responsible for a substantial proportion of exports. Bananas represent a very important source of income for Ecuador, Costa Rica and Honduras in particular.

The new Latin American entrant to the world banana market in the last five years is Peru, which is unique in the dollar zone in being exclusively small-scale production, mostly organic. Brazil, a banana producing giant (second only to India in the world), re-entered the international trade in the late 1990s after several decades only producing for its national market.

The only other Latin American exporting countries with any small-scale producers involved in the world market are Ecuador and Colombia. In Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama there are virtually no plantations of less than abut 100 hectares and their national markets are insignificant compared to the volumes they export.

See 'Exporting Regions' for more Information on Systems of Production.