Many businesses in Western Australia have been affected by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic or weather issues – but few have been as impacted by both as the Sweeter Banana plantation owners in Carnarvon.
During the plantations’ peak period, production volumes have doubled since December, says Sweeter Bananas business manager Doriana Mangili.
“We’ve gone from producing around 3,000 cartons a week in December to over 6,000 currently,” says Doriana.
“To put that in perspective, that’s an increase of 45,000 packs to over 90,000 packs with about five bananas in each bag.
“That means we’re sending an incredible 450,000 bananas a week to Perth, but thanks to the recent monsoonal rains and floods we experienced coupled with the short, sharp lockdown for five days, many of our growers have been faced with mountains of bananas to sell.”
Bananas grow all year round, but in summer, the small, sweeter Carnarvon bananas grow incredibly quickly in the warm weather.
“The tropical rains we experienced a few weeks ago gave the bananas a turbo-injection – the warm, humid conditions made them grow even faster, producing a bumper crop,” says Doriana.
“We are having trouble keeping up with packing them in our shed; we’ve got so many bunches coming in.”
Sweeter Bananas are cultivated naturally, with no pesticides, insecticides, or fungicides during the growing cycle. They are proudly WA, grown on family-run farms under the Sweeter Banana Co-operative, owned by grower members.
They take twice as long to grow as tropical bananas, and as a result, their flesh is extra sweet and creamy.
Therefore we ask people to support our local WA farms and buy Carnarvon bananas when they shop.
