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There’s No Banana Sweeter

Story: There’s No Banana Sweeter
Episode: 1
Presenter: Trevor
Air Date: 18th June


Walk through the plantation, learn bananas are grown with no pesticides/insecticides. How it creates an amazing sweet and creamy taste. Discover how trialing biomineral fertilisers to reduces chemical fertilizer and increase soil carbon, reducing waste and implementing sustainability credentials.

  • Carnarvon Sweeer Bananas – as the name suggests have a Sweet and Creamy taste due to our longer growing times (around half that of tropical bananas – around 14-15 months vs 7-9 months)
  • NO Nasty Chemicals - Zero pesticides/insecticides/fungicides used! A natural eco system with plenty of predatory bugs to keep pests under control. We previously added beneficial insects but after decades of not using sprays, a self-sustaining healthy insect population now exists. We are lucky as being isolated, at the edge of the desert means we are free of many tropical fungal diseases that occur in tropical areas where bananas are grown.
  • West Australian Locally grown – fresh and only one day away from Perth. Look out for the Buy West Eat Best Logo which demonstrates a product is fished, farmed or grown right here in Western Australia.
  • Grown on family run farms, the co-operative was established over 20 years ago to pack and market on behalf of the growers who are all owners – allows the growers to do what they are amazing at – which is grow incredible bananas and the co-op takes care of the packing, sales and marketing and all the paperwork! And all the profits go back to farmers. The little bananas grown by small business.
  • Perfect lunch box size - Carnarvon Sweeter Bananas are smaller than tropical bananas for most of the year, they get a little bit bigger in summer when our growing conditions are more closely aligned with the tropical conditions bananas love. The result of a bit more stress on the plants – cooler nights in winter, summer hot temps, strong west coast sea breezes and a dry desert climate means that the trees grow more slowly and more energy and sugar goes in to the fruit. 
  • Tickled by Nature We grow the bananas close together to create a micro climate (see above too hot/too cold/too windy/too dry) so we keep humidity in, hot summer sun out, protect against sea breeze and a bit warmer in winter. This results in more skin markings due to the leaves from the trees rubbing on the bananas, the markings are just on the skin and not on the fruit inside (demonstrate by peeling back one) Harvesting at a riper stage and because of the climate our banana skins are much softer and prone to bruising and marking so the packaging protects them. Before packaging they were unsaleable due to too much waste in store.

For more information:
https://www.sweeterbanana.com/


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