The economy of Ecuador is the eighth largest in Latin America and the 69th largest in the world by total GDP. Ecuador's economy is based on the export of oil, bananas, shrimp, gold, other primary agricultural products and money transfers from Ecuadorian emigrants employed abroad. In 2017, remittances constituted 2.7% of Ecuador's GDP. The total trade amounted to 42% of the Ecuador's GDP in 2017.
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing them from dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color, and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a peel, which may have a variety of colors when ripe. It grows upward in clusters near the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible seedless (parthenocarp) cultivated bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, or hybrids of them.
Black sigatoka is a leaf-spot disease of banana plants caused by the ascomycete fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis (Morelet), also known as black leaf streak. It was discovered in 1963 and named for its similarities with yellow Sigatoka, which is caused by Mycosphaerella musicola (Mulder), which was itself named after the Sigatoka Valley in Fiji. In the same valley an outbreak of this disease reached epidemic proportions from 1912 to 1923.
Panama disease is a plant disease that infects banana plants. It is a wilting disease caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc). The pathogen is resistant to fungicides and its control is limited to phytosanitary measures.
Marine shrimp farming is an aquaculture business for the cultivation of marine shrimp or prawns for human consumption. Although traditional shrimp farming has been carried out in Asia for centuries, large-scale commercial shrimp farming began in the 1970s, and production grew steeply, particularly to match the market demands of the United States, Japan and Western Europe. The total global production of farmed shrimp reached more than 1.6 million tonnes in 2003, representing a value of nearly 9 billion U.S. dollars. About 75% of farmed shrimp is produced in Asia, in particular in China and Thailand. The other 25% is produced mainly in Latin America, where Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico are the largest producers. The largest exporting nation is India.
Sigatoka is a town in Fiji. It is on the island of Viti Levu at the mouth of the Sigatoka River, for which it is named, some 61 kilometres from Nadi. Its population at the 2017 census was 17,622. It is the principal urban centre for the province of Nadroga-Navosa.
Gros Michel, often translated and known as "Big Mike", is an export cultivar of banana and was, until the 1950s, the main variety grown. The physical properties of the Gros Michel make it an excellent export produce; its thick peel makes it resilient to bruising during transport and the dense bunches that it grows in make it easy to ship.
Agriculture is one of the bases of Argentina's economy.
The agriculture of Brazil is historically one of the principal bases of Brazil's economy. As of 2024 the country is the second biggest grain exporter in the world, with 19% of the international market share, and the fourth overall grain producer. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of many popular agriculture commodities like coffee, soybeans, organic honey, beef, poultry, cane sugar, açai berry, orange juice, yerba mate, cellulose, tobacco, and the second biggest exporter of maize, pork, cotton, and ethanol. The country also has a significant presence as producer and exporter of rice, wheat, eggs, refined sugar, cocoa, beans, nuts, cassava, sisal fiber, and diverse fruits and vegetables.
Nicaragua produces coffee, cotton, bananas, sugar and beef cattle.
Agriculture in Colombia refers to all agricultural activities, essential to food, feed, and fiber production, including all techniques for raising and processing livestock within the Republic of Colombia. Plant cultivation and livestock production have continuously abandoned subsistence agricultural practices in favour of technological farming resulting in cash crops which contribute to the economy of Colombia. The Colombian agricultural production has significant gaps in domestic and/or international human and animal sustenance needs.
Banana production in the Caribbean is widespread. Bananas are cultivated by both small farmers and large land holders. The plant is perennial and is planted either in pure stands or in mixed cultivation, such as in Jamaica. Countries where bananas are a main export crop are Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname and Colombia.
The global commercial production for human use of fish and other aquatic organisms occurs in two ways: they are either captured wild by commercial fishing or they are cultivated and harvested using aquacultural and farming techniques.
Banana production in Ivory Coast, as in most of Africa, is primarily for local consumption and consists of crops of dessert bananas, cooking bananas grown on open plantations, and intermittent crops from sea level to elevations of 2000 metres above sea level. West Africa is second to Central Africa in banana production in Africa and its use as a staple crop for local residents. Most of the banana crop in Central Africa is for local consumption, bananas being a major foodstuff in this area.
Banana production in Belize accounted for 16 percent of total Belizean exports in 1999.
A banana plantation is a commercial agricultural facility found in tropical climates where bananas are grown.
Espírito Santo is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attractions.
Banana production in Ecuador is important to the national economy. Ecuador is one of the world's top banana producers, ranked 5th with an annual production of 8 million tonnes as of 2011. The country exports more than 4 million tonnes annually. The crop is mostly grown on private plantations which sell their crop to national and international companies such as Chiquita, Del Monte, Dole, and Noboa. and others.
Flhorban 920 (FB920) is a synthetic banana hybrid developed as a cultivar of banana naturally resistant to Black and Yellow Sigatoka fungi in an attempt to replace the highly susceptible Cavendish banana. Additionally, FB920 has been shown to improve root resistance to Burrowing nematodes.
The banana industry is an important part of the global industrial agrobusiness. About 15% of the global banana production goes to export and international trade for consumption in Western countries. They are grown on banana plantations primarily in the Americas.
