The banana plant may be at risk of extinction due to the spread of a disease.
Randy Ploetz, a researcher at UF’s Tropical Research and Education Center in south Florida, has created a six-part plan which he is sharing with the banana industry to prevent the spread of the disease to the Western Hemisphere.
Tropical Race 4, a variant of Panama disease, destroyed entire banana plantations in Southeast Asia in 1990. If the disease spreads to South America, there would be a significant impact on Florida consumers who rely on imports of the fruit because of Florida’s unfavorable environment for growing bananas.
Ploetz said if the disease does spread to South America, the Cavendish banana people know today would become extinct.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, so I don’t know when it’s going to happen,” he said. “But what has happened in the past with diseases like this is they do move.”
Ploetz’s plan lays out strategies on how to keep Tropical Race 4 out of America and what to do in the case of an outbreak. He aims to educate banana producers, researchers and anyone involved with the banana market in the Western Hemisphere.
“My goal is to let people know that this thing is lurking,” he said. “They need to be prepared on how to keep it away and what to do when it comes.”
Ploetz said if the disease spreads to the Western Hemisphere, it will wipe out entire banana plantations in countries such as Ecuador, where bananas are the biggest export.
“This affects virtually anyone who consumes the typical Chiquita banana seen in grocery stores,” he said.
