They're going bananas in the Midwest.
No, we're not talking about mass insanity, we're talking about the yellow elongated, edible fruit that serves as the most basic element of a banana spilt, while its outer covering has been the greatest gift to slapstick comedy ever.
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And when it comes to consumer preferences, the Musa acuminata plays second banana to nobody.
Americans love their bananas, wolfing down about 90 of these suckers a year, which comes out to about 27 pounds.
The U.S. was the biggest importer of bananas by a wide margin, receiving around $2.8 billion worth of the fruit in 2021, according to Statista.
Its main partner in the banana trade was Guatemala, from which it received around 1.1 billion dollars worth of bananas in 2021.
Bananas on the Move
Bananas are believed to have originated up to 10,000 years ago and some scientists believe they may have been the world's first fruit, the Australian Banana Growers' Council says on its website.
The first bananas are thought to have grown in the region that includes the Malaya Peninsula, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea.
In 327 BC, when Alexander The Great and his army invaded India, he discovered banana crop in the Indian Valleys. After tasting this unusual fruit for the first time, he introduced the new discovery to the Western world.
That includes the Midwest.
The grocery delivery service Instacart said it has delivered more than one billion pounds of bananas to date, making them the company's most popular grocery purchase.
And, pray tell, Instacart, where are bananas really popular?
"While bananas are a big business everywhere in the country, Instacart data shows a clear pattern that folks in the Midwest and neighboring states have a higher share of banana purchases, especially in comparison to southern states and Hawaii," Laurentia Romaniuk, Instacart’s trends expert, told Fox Business.
Big in the Heartland
The top five states with the highest share of banana purchases are Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado and Pennsylvania.
"These regional differences bring to life how American diets differ based upon where you live, and while bananas may be the fruit of choice in Iowa, we can only imagine that people in Louisiana are munching on other delicious fruits harvested in the state like tomatoes and strawberries," Romaniuk said.
By the way, the top five stares with the lowest share of banana purchases Hawaii, Louisiana, Alaska, Alabama, and Maine.
In addition to being tasty and nutritious, bananas also are easy on the wallet.
While consumers have been cracking up over recent rise in the cost of eggs recently, bananas have hovered at around 58 cents a pound for the past seven years, Statisa said,
In 2022, the retail price of one pound of bananas in the United States increased slightly compared with the year before and registered at 63 cents.
But the low price tag comes with some controversy.
The National Consumers League said that while stagnating banana prices may be a good deal for consumers, they have put the squeeze on planters, some of whom are hiring children as source of cheap labor.
"The work is hard, often dangerous, and not fit for children," the group said. "Yet they toil in the fields to help their impoverished families."
