The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1911-04-22

Value Of Bananas Imported in the
Last Decade, One Hundred :
Million Dollars. ~.
Central America and the West
Indies Chief Sources of Sup
- = - ..ra@,
~. ply Of Product. 49, -

~~>N
ply of the United States comes from
abroad. Efforts have been made from
time to time to develop the banana
industry in the extreme south and in
Cali ornia, but the domestic produce
ton is inconsiderable when compared
with the importation. The banana.
while probably native of India, is
now grown in practically all tropical
countries, and among. a considerable
part. of the human race ranks as high
as do cereal grains among the people
of the temperate zones, and/it is said
to produce more food upon a. given
area than wheat. The consumption
of bananas in temperate zone coun-
tries has increased enormously in re-
cent years. They are used chiefly in
the natural state but in smaller guam
titles of this flour are imported into
the United States but in such incon-
siderable amounts that the Bureau Of
of Statistics has not up to this. time
found it advisable to separately en-
umerate it among articles imported.
Four thousand million bananas
were imported into the United States
In the calendar year 1910. The ban
ana habit is growing one in the
United States. In the early sos the
value Of bananas imported, according
to the fiugres Of the Bureau of Statis-
tics of the Department of Commerce
and Labor, ranged between $1,OOO,>
600 and 100000 per annum; by
1890 the value had increased, to$4,-
100000, in the fiscal year of 1900 to
nearly $e,ooo,ooo; and in the calendar
year 1910, to practically$12,500,0 900:
The rapid growth in this class Of i'm
portations led the: Bureau of Statistics
a few years ago to call upon collec-'
tors of customs for the quantity ais
we'll as the value imported, and the
figures of quantities, beginning with
the year 1908. showed. for that year
35,750.000 punches; in 1909, $780,
900; and in 1910. a little over 40,000,-
600 punches were imported. Assum-
ing that those average 100 bananas
to the bunch, figure which the i'm
porters state to be a conservative es-'
innate, the total number imported in
1910 would aggregate approximately
1000 bananas.
The value of. the bannas imported
in the last decade aggregates in round
terms $100,000,0O0. In the calendar
year 1901 the total value of bananas
imported was $6,75O,O00; in 1869
100000; in 1907, .$11,75O,0O0; and in
1910, $12,500,00 These. figures of
the values Of bananas imported are
the valuation at wholesalg prices in
the countries from which exported to
the United States: and the average
price per bunch was 81 cents, as will
be readily seen by deviding the 49,
1872, 95S punches imported in 1910
into the stated value of 12,433,334.
How much money is paid by con-
sinners in the United States for ban
anas cannot be estimated with ac-
curacy, though the cost of freight,
and and the profits of importers,
wholesalers and retailers must add
very materially to the $12,500,0O0
paid for them in the countries Of
production. F.
Central America and the West In
dies are the chief sources of supply
of the bananas imported into the
United States. OF the 100000
punches imported in the calendar year
1910, 100000. were. from Central
America: 13,600,o00 from British;
West Indies; 100000 from South
America, principally Colombia and
Dutch Guiana; 100000 from Cuba;
and about 1000. 900 from other coun-
tries. Costa Rica is the largest
source of supply in Central America,
Hondrus second, and Panama third,
and Jamaica Is the largest source of
supply in the West India Islands. The
United States is the worlds largest
importer of bananas. The United
Kingdom is the next largest importer,
her imports of this articles in the CAL
endar year 1909 being 6,250,OOO
punches. as against 39,500.0 900
'bunches imported into the United
States in the same year. ~