Bananas and other tropical fruits

In the depths of winter, when boredom sets in with our stored apples and pears and small citrus fruits that are past their peak, the invigorating, zingy, larger-than-life flavours and perfumes of fruits such as pineapple and passion fruit are highly seductive. These two fruits, along with lychees and physalis (Cape gooseberry), travel reasonably well and when we get them in the UK they taste pretty similar to how they might on their home territory. Bananas, mangoes, guavas and papayas, on the other hand, rarely do, and other fruits, such as the pitahaya (dragon fruit), carambola (star fruit) and the kiwano (horned melon) are so spectacularly taste-free that they are best considered ornamental and left on the shelf. Plantain – the starchy, less sweet member of the banana family that is used for savoury cooking – transports reasonably well.

Almost all the tropical fruits we see on our shelves have come from a handful of commercial varieties that have been chosen, not for eating quality or taste, but because they can stand up to transport and look good, which means, among other things, that they must have a tougher skin than usual. Most mangoes on sale in Britain, for example, are from the visually attractive Tommy Atkin, Kent and Keitt varieties that were bred in the US, not in tropical countries. They look good with their shiny, smooth green and red skins, but lack perfume and are usually fibrous and turnip-like in the mouth. Indian Alfonso variety mangoes, or Pakistani Chaunsa and Langra mango varieties, on the other hand, are traditional varieties that look duller and their skins are often marked, but they are aromatic and full-flavoured with yielding flesh. These luscious mangoes are rarely found in supermarkets and are best sought out in Asian food shops.

Tropical fruits destined for supermarkets are usually picked underripe and immature – ‘green and backward’ as they are known in the fruit trade – so they can withstand transport either by air or sea. Not only do they never develop their full taste and scent potential, they can also remain unpleasantly acidic because they have been harvested before they would naturally sweeten. Pineapple and passion fruits often suffer from this problem. When they have ripened naturally, bananas, for instance, have lots of little brown specks on their skins, but our supermarkets would see these as flaws. When buying plantain, choose fruits with skins that are neither yellow nor too brown.

Although you can do a certain amount to ripen up tropical fruits at home, by leaving them for a few days at room temperature, say, or sticking them in a bowl with riper fruits to encourage them to ripen up also, their natural development has been disturbed much earlier in the supply chain, so there is only so much you can do with them.

Things to do with tropical fruits

•  Bake bananas in orange juice along with a little lemon or lime juice and golden demerara or Barbados sugar to taste. Good warm with vanilla ice cream.

•  Fry plantains sliced thinly on the diagonal until golden and crisp and serve with Caribbean dishes such as jerk chicken and rice and peas, or as an alternative to fried potatoes or chips.

•  Use under-ripe green mango in a piquant Thai salad. Shred the fruit and mix with chopped shallots, basil and coriander leaves. Make a dressing by blending coriander stalks, lime juice, palm or caster sugar and a mild green chilli.

•  Sprinkle sea salt, lime juice and chilli flakes on ripe mangoes and eat as a salad, or as a fresh pickle with Indian food.

•  Serve strained, thick, Greek-style yogurt, flavoured with a little honey, a few crushed cardamom seeds and a pinch of toasted, crumbled saffron – in the style of Indian shrikand – then top with passion fruit pulp and seeds and a few chopped pistachios.

•  Bring out the flavour of papaya by tossing slices with a squeeze of lime juice.

•  Fry thin slices of ripe pineapple in golden caster sugar and unsalted butter. When golden, stir in some finely chopped ginger, either fresh or preserved in syrup. Slips down nicely with coconut ice cream.

Are tropical fruits good for me?

From a nutrition point of view, tropical fruits are full of beneficial vitamins, minerals and valuable micronutrients. Bananas, for instance, are loaded with potassium, which is thought to reduce blood pressure, pineapples and papaya are considered to be anti-inflammatory foods, while ripe mangoes are a good source of carotenes. Eating foods rich in carotenes is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, certain cancers and cataracts. Tropical fruits do contain a fair amount of natural sugar, more than non-tropical, native fruits such as berries. This means that they aren’t a great choice for anyone who is diabetic or trying to lose weight. That said, they make a much healthier alternative to sweet foods that you might otherwise eat, like cakes or biscuits.

From an overall health and safety perspective, the pesticide residues that commonly turn up in non-organic tropical fruits are a cause for concern. Government tests here show that the vast majority of bananas and pineapples, for instance, contain residues. Pesticide residues are toxins so it makes sense to limit your exposure, meaning it is probably a good idea not to eat tropical fruit in vast quantities. If you are a parent, you may want to restrict the amount of non-organic tropical fruits that you give to babies, toddlers and children who, because they are still growing, are more susceptible than adults to the effects of pesticide residues.

How are tropical fruits grown?

Our growing taste for tropical fruits has had fairly direct effects on the way that they are grown. If you visit many tropical countries, you will see different fruits growing alongside one another, mixed in with other food crops as just part of the natural vegetation. Since the 1980s however, with the spread of supermarkets, smaller-scale producers of bananas and other tropical fruits have been overtaken by the plantation-style production which is owned and operated by large transnational companies who use hired, often casual, often migrant, labour.

These plantations, be they in Costa Rica or Cameroon, are vast, stretching much further than the eye can see. Trade union groups and non-governmental organizations report that workers routinely earn less than a living wage while working in unhealthy and often hazardous conditions. In Latin America, for example, the banana has earned the nickname of ‘the chemical fruit’ because workers are so exposed to pesticides, often by aerial spraying. Costa Rican pineapple plantation workers frequently have deformed fingernails from planting pesticide-soaked plants with their bare hands. Many tropical fruits are also dipped in chemical fungicides before being dispatched to stop them from rotting en route. When you buy organic fruits, you know that workers haven’t had to risk their health to grow them. Organic certification standards do not cover workers’ conditions or pay, but mean that workers do not have to work with agrochemicals day in and day out and are likely to have a better working environment and conditions than the industry norm.

A string of reports has testified to how fruit workers are working for up to fifteen hours at a stretch, six days a week, and travelling (at their own expense and in their own time) another few hours to and from work. Once on the plantation, they are on ‘piece’ rates so have to work longer than their nominal hours just to make a living. It is estimated that banana plantation workers earn as little as 2–3 per cent, and no more than 5 per cent, of the final retail price consumers pay. This contrasts with small-scale producers who are Fairtrade, who get about 16 per cent of the final price.

On fruit plantations, tales of victimization and harassment of workers’ organizations and representatives who try to improve working conditions are common. There have been several lawsuits (both successful and unsuccessful) where groups of plantation workers have sued for compensation for the adverse health effects they have suffered from unhealthy and dangerous working conditions. Most tropical fruits on sale in the UK, unless they are Fairtrade or organic, come from plantation-style production systems. Fairtrade bananas, which usually come from the Caribbean or the Dominican Republic, are grown on a much smaller scale and come from people who earn a living wage and who have reasonably equitable working conditions. Fairtrade producers are required to minimize their use of pesticides.

Are tropical fruits a green choice?

Plantation-style intensive fruit production is a disaster for the environment. It is standard practice to plant them in monocultures – kilometre after kilometre of the same fruit – since this makes it easier to cultivate and harvest mechanically and has lower production costs. Plantation production leads to a build-up of disease and pests because there is no rotation of crops and an absence of companion plants that would attract beneficial predators to outcompete with them.

Plantation production is also focused on a handful of highly commercial global crop varieties, which are selected mainly for their cosmetic appearance and also for their ability to stand up to long-haul transport. All bananas come from the ubiquitous Cavendish variety, while most pineapples are either of the Smooth Cayenne type or one of the new ultra-sweet golden sort. This narrow genetic base also makes them more susceptible to disease because they are not as well-suited or adapted to local growing conditions as more diverse native varieties, which have remained popular over time because of their disease resistance.

For all these reasons, any more natural production methods, such as organic, or even just a reduction in pesticide use, are out of the question, so plantation-produced tropical fruits are grown at all stages in their life cycle with regular treatments of agrochemicals. Environmental organizations in countries where intensive plantation-style fruit production is widespread have monitored how pesticide run-off from plantations has polluted rivers, killing off wildlife and aquatic species.

Tropical fruits are either sent by air, which generates substantial amounts of CO₂ and so fuels climate change, or they come by boat, which is generally thought to produce less carbon than air transport.

The only commercial source of organic bananas is the Dominican Republic because it has not been affected by the black sigatoka disease that has blighted production elsewhere, so natural production methods that do not rely on chemicals are viable there.

Where and when should I buy tropical fruits?

Tropical fruits are on offer all year round. Since the 1980s, supermarket distribution with its global reach has made tropical fruits seem as ‘everyday’ and reliably available as our native fruits. But on taste and environmental grounds it is better to think of them as fall-backs for times of the year when home-grown or European fruits are thin on the ground.

Given that so many of the tropical fruits on our shelves are disappointing to eat, it is very worthwhile considering tinned versions. Tinned Alfonso mango pulp is likely to taste much better than most of the ‘fresh’ mangoes you can lay your hands on. Lychees and rambutans also retain much of their aroma when canned. Drain off the syrup if you want to eat less sugar. Dried tropical fruits, such as mango and pineapple, often have an attractive, slightly concentrated flavour. They are often surprisingly good when rehydrated (soaked in liquid) and eaten as a breakfast compote, or used in baking (see DRIED FRUIT AND CANDIED FRUITS).

THE CARIBBEAN CONNECTION

The only perishable tropical fruit that figured in any quantity in the British diet before the 1980s was the banana. Nowadays it is the UK’s most popular fruit. It was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that importers figured out a way to import bananas to Britain from our colonies without them arriving rotten. During the Second World War, bananas were unobtainable as banana ships with refrigerated holds were requisitioned for other cargoes. Shipments recommenced after the war.

Our main source of bananas until the 1990s was the Caribbean islands of Jamaica, St Vincent, Grenada, St Lucia and Dominica, where the fruit was grown on small, family-owned farms. Growers there earned a living wage and their conditions were negotiated by trade unions and enshrined in law. As supermarkets have largely taken over from the traditional greengrocer, and transnational companies have supplied them with cheaper, plantation-style bananas, Caribbean banana growers have been pushed out of the market. In 1992 there were 24,000 banana farms in the Caribbean; now there are fewer than 4,000. Caribbean banana growers got together and became Fairtrade to differentiate their fruits from the cheaper, more ubiquitous, plantation-style equivalent. If you think it is important to support more equitable banana production and support our traditional suppliers, seek out Caribbean bananas.

Will tropical fruits break the bank?

Tropical fruits are generally very expensive and often a bit of a let-down to eat, so they rarely justify the outlay. The one exception to this rule is bananas, which have reduced dramatically in price. For years, supermarkets have conducted regular ‘banana wars’ where they slash the cost of bananas. Bananas are what supermarkets call a ‘known value item’, a staple, everyday food, like sliced bread or milk, that consumers are known to use as benchmarks to gauge how cheap, or otherwise, a store is. If a chain can sell these price-sensitive essentials at a spectacularly low price, then this can be used to put a halo of good value around everything else in the store.

Trade unions and charities insist that the long-term effect of subsequent banana price wars has been to impoverish banana workers. They argue that the relentless downward pressure on price favours banana suppliers that do not pay their workforce a living wage or offer decent working conditions. Furthermore, they say that cheap plantation bananas are harming more ethically produced bananas by making them look extremely expensive in comparison.