Where Do They Come From?   
 
Organic certified fresh bananas (for export) are grown in the Dominican Republic (for European Union, North American markets and Japan), Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Mexico (for North America only), Honduras, Israel (mainly for internal consumption), Martinique (France only), Philippines (Japan only), Canaries and Madeira. In addition, small volumes of Biodynamic bananas are grown on two plantations (one in Dominican Republic and one in Egypt).
In 2000, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimated that both the US and EU markets were growing fast (50 and 80% respectively per year and that by 2005, with an annual global increase of 65%, the organic banana market would grow to 3% of the total world trade in the fruit. However the market has not grown as quickly as initially predicted. In 2002 it was growing by a more modest 15%. In the UK, organic sales account for over 5% of the market.
Demand is almost certain to continue to grow, especially in Northern Europe. However, production constraints - linked to endemic disease problems in many traditional banana epxorting zones - mean that supply remains very limited. The costs of conversion of monoculture banana, where a non-chemical system is technically possible, are high. Small producers can rarely afford the initial conversion costs without external support.

Some Fairtrade certified producers are also certified organic. There are several small farmers' associations in the Dominican Republic, Peru and Ecuador, and medium- or large-scale plantations in the Dominican Republic,Colombia and Ecuador. Philippino organic bananas are traded with a Japanese consumer cooperative on alternative trading terms, but without a fair-trade label, and, in some cases, without organic certification. 
 
How Are They Grown?  
 
Soil fertility is maintained - and enhanced - by the use of organic fertilisers which vary from producer to producer. In the Dominican Republic they use coffee husks, mixed with animal dung (poultry/cattle). Elsewhere guano, fish bones and seaweed are used. In some places, crop residues are also returned to the soil. Inter-cropping with cocoa, spices and other fruit trees is common in non-export bananas, but almost non-existent in the export sector.  
 
Weed control is manual and/or with machetes; sometimes a green legume cover-crop is grown between bananas.  
 
Pest problems are tackled using a variety of non-chemical methods. But most organic production comes from areas not infected by the devastating black sigatoka (leaf-streak) fungal disease which costs so much to control in a conventional system. It is possible to control the less serious yellow sigatoka disease using organic methods, but the presence of the black sigatoka spores in and around banana and plantain plantation monocultures, especially in Central America, makes chemical treatment essential. 

Further Reading
 
Organic Banana 2000: Towards An Organic Banana Initiative In The Caribbean.
Report of the International Workshop on the Production and Marketing of Organic Bananas by Smallholder Farmers October 31 to November 4, 1999, Dominican Republic. Compiled by: M. Holderness, S. Sharrock, E. Frison and M. Kairo

Working Group On Environmentally And Socially Responsible Horticulture Production And Trade Including A Comparative Analysis Of The Main Environmental And Social Certification Programmes In The Banana Sector

Ethylene Use In The Ripening Of Organic Bananas - Soil Association Briefing Paper
Soil Association

Market For 'Organic' And 'Fair Trade' Bananas (FAO May 1999)
 
Potential For Fair Trade And Organic For The Windward Islands 

Websites

IFOAM - International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements - includes lots of links to relevant sites.

Borsa Di Bologna: Page 7 of the weekly price lists contains prices of organic fruit and vegetables including bananas (in Italian)

Balaika Organic Bananas, Egypt, Demeter (biodynamic certified)