16 November 2008, www.reefertrends.com

Ethiopia currently produces an estimated 200K MT of bananas per year, all of which is destined for domestic consumption. Efforts are underway to enable Ethiopia supply banana to the world market for the first time, according to an Ethiopian investor engaged in banana cultivation. In an interview published with the Ethiopian News Agency ENA the investor, Gebrekerstos Gad claimed that his company was undertaking various activities to improve the quality of banana in preparation for an export push. “We already have started quality improving activities through the application of tissue culture, [agricultural practice used to propagate plants under germ-free conditions] to get our own quality banana varieties,” he said. He claimed his company has had similar experiences in the Cameroon and that it plans to start exporting bananas next year.