Plantain - Production Trends

Production Trends

FAO reports that Uganda was the top producer of plantain in 2009 with 9.5 million metric tonnes harvest. The next four major producers of plantain, in decreasing harvest were Ghana, Colombia, Rwanda and Nigeria.

FAO reports, that for 2009, the other major plantain producing regions in the world, by production harvest quantities, were: Cameroon, Peru, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Myanmar, United Republic of Tanzania, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Guinea, Bolivia, Cuba, Malawi.

The Great Lakes region covering parts of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya and Congo is the largest producer and consumer of plantains in Africa. The per capita consumption of plantain in this region of the world is 250 kilogram per year, the highest in the world.

Minor producers of plantain include Panama, Myanmar, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Costa Rica, Canary Islands, Honduras, United States, Guadeloupe, Japan, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, the Pacific Islands and northern Australia. Farmers grow plantains as far north as Northern California and as far south as KwaZulu-Natal.

Some countries that were minor producers of plantains in 2009, were major producers of bananas. For example, as the largest producer of banana, India harvested over 24.5 million metric tonnes of bananas in 2009. Some sources of world production data do not differentiate production statistics between plantain and bananas.

In 2010, the world average annual yield for plantain crop was 6.77 tonnes per hectare. The most productive farms of plantain breeds were in El Salvador, where the nationwide average annual yield was 31.13 tonnes per hectare.