Banana republic#Etymology

File:Cover of Cabbages and Kings, 1904 edition.jpg (1904 edition)]]

In the 20th century, American writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter, 1862–1910) coined the term banana republic to describe the fictional Republic of Anchuria in the book Cabbages and Kings (1904),{{cite book |author=O. Henry |author-link=O. Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/cabbageskingshenr |title=Cabbages and Kings |publisher=Doubleday, Page & Company |year=1904 |location=New York City |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cabbageskingshenr/page/147/mode/1up?q=%22banana+republic%22 147], [https://archive.org/details/cabbageskingshenr/page/328/mode/1up?q=%22banana+republic%22 328] |ol=6948347M}} a collection of thematically related short stories inspired by his experiences in Honduras, whose economy was heavily dependent on the export of bananas. He lived there for six months until January 1897, hiding in a hotel while he was wanted in the United States for embezzlement from a bank.{{cite journal |author=Malcolm D. MacLean |date=Summer 1968 |title=O. Henry in Honduras |journal=American Literary Realism, 1870–1910 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=36–46 |jstor=27747601 }}

In the early 20th century, the United Fruit Company, a multinational corporation, was instrumental in the creation of the banana republic phenomenon.{{cite book | last = Chapman | first = Peter | title = Jungle Capitalists: A Story of Globalisation, Greed and Revolution | publisher = Canongate | location = Edinburgh New York | year = 2009 | page = 6 | isbn = 978-1-84767-686-3 }}[https://nytimes.com/2008/03/02/books/review/Kurtz-Phelan-t.html Big Fruit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313044710/://.com/2008/03/02/books/review/Kurtz-Phelan-t.html |date=2017-03-13 }}, NY Times Together with other American corporations, such as the Cuyamel Fruit Company, and leveraging the power of the U.S. government, the corporations created the political, economic, and social circumstances that led to a coup of the locally elected democratic government that established banana republics in Central American countries such as Honduras and Guatemala[http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/11/economist-explains-16 Where did banana republics get their name?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170817034827/https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/11/economist-explains-16 |date=2017-08-17 }}, The Economist; No official apology has ever been done by any banana company or the U.S. with only the C.I.A. backed dictator of Guatemala apologizing in 2011.[https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/world/americas/an-apology-for-a-guatemalan-coup-57-years-later.html An Apology for a Guatemalan Coup, 57 Years Later] 2011-10-20 , New York Times

The history of the banana republic began with the introduction of the banana fruit to the United States in 1870, by Lorenzo Dow Baker, captain of the schooner Telegraph, who bought bananas in Jamaica and sold them in Boston at a 1,000% profit.{{Cite book |author=Alison Acker |title=Honduras. The Making of a Banana Republic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lwhrAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Between the Lines |location=Toronto |year=1988 |page=60 |isbn=978-0-919946-89-7}} The banana proved popular with Americans, as a nutritious tropical fruit that was less expensive than locally grown fruit in the U.S., such as apples; in 1913, 25 cents ({{Inflation|US|0.25|1913|r=2|fmt=eq}}) bought a dozen bananas, but only two apples.{{Cite book|author = Dan Koeppel |title = Banana. The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World|url=https://archive.org/details/bananafateoffrui00koep|url-access = registration |publisher = Hudson Street Press|location = London|year=2008|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bananafateoffrui00koep/page/68 68] |isbn=978-1-59463-038-5}} In 1873, to produce food for their railroad workers, American railroad tycoons Henry Meiggs and his nephew, Minor C. Keith, established banana plantations along the railroads they built in Costa Rica; recognising the profitability of exporting bananas, they began exporting the fruit to the Southeastern United States.

File:Minor Cooper Keith in 1917.jpg, American banana planter and businessman]]

In the mid-1870s, to manage the new industrial-agriculture business enterprise in the countries of Central America, Keith founded the Tropical Trading and Transport Company: one-half of what would later become the United Fruit Company (UFC), later Chiquita Brands International, created in 1899 by merger with the Boston Fruit Company, owned by Andrew Preston. By the 1930s, the international political and economic tensions created by the United Fruit Company enabled the corporation to control 80–90% of the banana business in the U.S.Alison Acker (1988), p. 63.

By the late 19th century, three American multinational corporations (the UFC, the Standard Fruit Company, and the Cuyamel Fruit Company) dominated the cultivation, harvesting, and exportation of bananas, and controlled the road, rail, and port infrastructure of Honduras. In the northern coastal areas near the Caribbean Sea, the Honduran government ceded to the banana companies {{convert|500|ha/km|acre/mi}} of a laid railroad, despite there being neither passenger nor freight railroad service to Tegucigalpa, the capital city. Among the Honduran people, the United Fruit Company was known as El Pulpo ("The Octopus" in English), because its influence pervaded Honduran society, controlled their country's transport infrastructure, and manipulated Honduran national politics with anti-labour violence.{{Cite book |author=Peter Chapman |title=Bananas. How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a-azAAAAIAAJ |publisher=Canongate |location=Edinburgh |year=2007 |page=102

|isbn=978-1-84195-881-1 |access-date=2016-12-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140717125813/http://books.google.com/books?id=a-azAAAAIAAJ |archive-date=2014-07-17 |url-status=live }}

In 1924, despite the UFC monopoly, the Vaccaro brothers established the Standard Fruit Company (later the Dole Food Company) to export Honduran bananas to the U.S. port of New Orleans. The fruit-exporting corporations kept U.S. prices low by legalistic manipulation of Latin American national land use laws to cheaply buy large tracts of prime agricultural land for corporate banana plantations in the republics of the Caribbean Basin, the Central American isthmus, and tropical South America; the American fruit companies then employed the dispossessed Latin American natives as low-wage employees.

By the 1930s, the United Fruit Company owned {{convert|3.5|e6acre|ha|abbr=off|order=flip}} of land in Central America and the Caribbean and was the single largest landowner in Guatemala. Such holdings gave it great power over the governments of small countries, one of the factors confirming the suitability of the phrase "banana republic".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WH5jDgAAQBAJ&q=United+Fruit+company+Banana+republics&pg=PT31|title=America's Backyard: The United States and Latin America from the Monroe Doctrine to the War on Terror|first=Grace|last=Livingstone|date=4 April 2013|publisher=Zed Books Ltd.|access-date=22 March 2018|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1-84813-611-3}}

File:Lee Christmas.jpg overthrew the civil government of Honduras to install a military government friendly to foreign businesses.]]

In the early 20th century, American businessman Sam Zemurray (founder of the Cuyamel Fruit Company) was instrumental in establishing the "banana republic" stereotype. He entered the banana-export business by buying overripe bananas from the United Fruit Company to sell in New Orleans. In 1910, Zemurray bought {{convert|6075|ha|acre|sigfig=2}} in the Caribbean coast of Honduras for use by the Cuyamel Fruit Company. In 1911, Zemurray conspired with Manuel Bonilla, an ex-president of Honduras (1904–1907), and American mercenary Lee Christmas, to overthrow the civil government of Honduras and install a military government friendly to foreign businesses.

The mercenary army of the Cuyamel Fruit Company, led by Christmas, effected a coup d'état against President Miguel R. Dávila (1907–1911) and installed Bonilla (1912–1913). The United States ignored the deposition of the elected government of Honduras by a private army, justified by the U.S. State Department's misrepresenting Dávila as too politically liberal and a poor businessman whose management had indebted Honduras to Great Britain. This was a geopolitically unacceptable circumstance in light of the Monroe Doctrine. The coup d'état was a consequence of the Dávila government's having slighted the Cuyamel Fruit Company by colluding with the rival United Fruit Company to award them a monopoly contract for the Honduran banana in exchange for the UFC's brokering of U.S. government loans to Honduras.{{Cite book |author=Darío A. Euraque |title=Reinterpreting the Banana Republic. Region and State in Honduras, 1870–1972 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0B0akM7RKGoC |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |year=1996 |page=44 |isbn=978-0-8078-4604-9 |access-date=2016-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160810040943/https://books.google.com/books?id=0B0akM7RKGoC |archive-date=2016-08-10 |url-status=live }}

The political instability consequent to the coup d'état stalled the Honduran economy, and the unpayable external debt (c. US$4 billion) of Honduras was excluded from access to international investment capital. That financial deficit perpetuated Honduran economic stagnation and perpetuated the image of Honduras as a banana republic.{{cite journal |author=W.S. Valentine |date=November 1916 |title=Need for Capital in Latin America: Honduras |journal=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=68 |pages= 185–87 |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=Thousand Oaks, California |jstor=1013083|doi=10.1177/000271621606800125 |s2cid=220724414 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/2368033 }} The inherited foreign debt functionally undermined the Honduran government, which allowed foreign corporations to manage the country and become sole employers of the Honduran people. The American fruit companies controlled the economic infrastructure (road, rail, and port, telegraph and telephone) they had built in Honduras.

The U.S. dollar went on to become the legal-tender currency of Honduras; Christmas became commander of the Honduran Army, and later was appointed U.S. Consul to Honduras.{{Cite book |author=George Black |title=The Good Neighbor: How the United States Wrote the History of Central America and the Caribbean |url=https://archive.org/details/goodneighborhowu00blac |url-access=registration |publisher=Pantheon Books |location=New York City |year=1988 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/goodneighborhowu00blac/page/35 35] |isbn=978-0-394-75965-4 |access-date=2016-05-14 }} 23 years later,after corporate interest among the American businessmen, Zemurray assumed control of the rival United Fruit Company in 1933.

Guatemala contains the regional socio-economic legacy of a 'banana republic': inequitably distributed agricultural land and natural wealth, uneven economic development, and an economy dependent upon a few export crops—usually bananas, coffee, and sugarcane. The inequitable land distribution is an important cause of national poverty, as well as the accompanying sociopolitical discontent and insurrection. Almost 90% of the country's farms are too small to yield adequate subsistence harvests to the farmers. 2% of the country's farms occupy 65% of the arable land as the property of the local oligarchy.{{Cite web |title=Guatemala |url=https://www.land-links.org/country-profile/guatemala/ |date=August 2010|access-date=2022-06-30 |website=LandLinks |language=en-US}}

During the 1950s, the United Fruit Company sought to convince the governments of U.S. presidents Harry S. Truman (1945–1953) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961) that the popular, elected government of President Jacobo Árbenz of Guatemala was secretly pro-Soviet for having expropriated unused "fruit company lands" to landless peasants. In the Cold War (1945–1991) context of the proactive anti-communist politics exemplified by U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy in the years 1947–1957, geo-political concerns about the security of the Western Hemisphere facilitated Eisenhower's ordering and authorising Operation Success. It was a 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état by means of which the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency deposed the democratically elected government of Árbenz and installed the pro-business government of Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas (1954–1957), which lasted for three years until his assassination by a presidential guard.{{cite news |last=Koeppel |first=Dan |date=8 June 2008 |title=Yes, We Will Have No Bananas |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18koeppel.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=11 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161209090823/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18koeppel.html |archive-date=9 December 2016 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all }}

A mixed history of elected presidents and puppet-master military juntas were the governments of Guatemala in the course of the 36-year Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996). However, in 1986, at the 26-year mark, the Guatemalan people promulgated a new political constitution, and elected Vinicio Cerezo (1986–1991) president; then Jorge Serrano Elías (1991–1993).{{cite journal |author=Carol A. Smith |date=August 1978 |title=Beyond Dependency Theory: National and Regional Patterns of Underdevelopment in Guatemala |journal=American Ethnologist |volume= 5 |issue= 3 |pages= 574–617 |publisher=American Ethnological Society |doi=10.1525/ae.1978.5.3.02a00090 |jstor=643758|doi-access=free }}

In the early 20th century, Ecuador was primarily a cocoa exporting country; however, due to diseases and competition from other exporters, the country sought an alternative crop that could serve as a significant export. Ecuador became a major producer of bananas due to its comparative advantage in fertile lowlands, low labor costs, and skilled workers. Additionally, Ecuador has many environmental advantages, such as a lack of natural disasters and no excess humidity that may allow diseases to fester. The minimal disease prevalence has decreased pesticide costs in Ecuador compared to other banana republic countries. The world's major importer of bananas is the European Union. Ecuador produces its bananas during the European's highest demand season for bananas, which is December through May, further contributing to Ecuador's advantage in the banana market.{{Cite web |last1=Hellin |first1=Jon |last2=Higman |first2=Sophie |date=May 14, 2014 |title=The impact of the multinational companies on the banana sector in Ecuador |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738580 |website=ResearchGate}}

Ecuador is the world's largest exporter of bananas, representing over a third of international banana sales,{{Cite web |date=2025 |title=Banana Market Review - Preliminary Results 2024 |url=https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a2c47975-b6eb-4088-acdb-b2b7415b076a/content |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250316114204/https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a2c47975-b6eb-4088-acdb-b2b7415b076a/content |archive-date=2025-03-16 |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations}} and banana export revenues were a quarter of Ecuador's total value of merchandise exports.{{Cite web |title=Intergovernmental Group on Bananas and on Tropical Fruits |url=https://www.fao.org/4/X1390E/X1390E.htm |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations}} Ecuador is considered a banana republic country due to its dependence on the banana and multinational corporations for the functionality of its economy. Still, it differs in a few characteristics of the typical banana republic country. Instead of the major banana corporations that contain large plantations throughout the country, such as Dole, Chiquita, or Del Monte, Ecuador's banana production mainly comes from over five thousand small-holder farmers. Corporations originally established plantations in Ecuador, but issues with switching from the Gros Michel variety to the Cavendish variety, lack of knowledge about this new variety, and an overvalued exchange rate caused the corporations to give production back to independent farmers around the 1960s. Corporations now directly contract smallholder farmers in Ecuador instead of owning their plantations. However, corporations still influence prices paid to producers, pesticide use, and other growing decisions.

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There are a variety of actors that participate in the production of bananas in Ecuador. There are groups that provide financial and economic services to fund the independent farmers. Some organizations include the Ecuadorian Central Bank and Banking for Rural and Urban Productive Development. A different set of actors supplies research for producers so they can combat diseases and produce bananas more efficiently. Some examples are the Agrocalidad and phytosanitary regulatory agency, as well as research groups from universities in Ecuador. Lastly, there is a group of actors that are manufacturers, importers, or suppliers of agrochemicals and machinery. Banana exporting countries rely heavily on cartons that transport bananas, supplied by companies such as Industria Cartonera Ecutoriana and Cartonera Pichincha.Mosquera, L.E.; Alvarez, D.A.; Ritter, T.; Mockshell, J.; Vera, D.; Dita, M M. (2023) Banana value chain profile for Ecuador: The world's largest exporter is at risk from Fusarium TR4. Cali (Colombia): Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). 10 p.

File:Global_Banana_Exports_by_Region.png

The banana market structure is oligopolistic due to five major corporations having major control over the market.{{Cite journal |last1=Santosh |first1=D.T. |last2=Tiwari |first2=K.N. |last3=Reddy |first3=Raja Gopala |date=2017-07-20 |title=Banana Bunch Covers for Quality Banana Production – A Review |url=http://www.ijcmas.com/abstractview.php?ID=3130&vol=6-7-2017&SNo=155 |journal=International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences |volume=6 |issue=7 |pages=1275–1291 |doi=10.20546/ijcmas.2017.607.155|doi-access=free }} World trade is dominated by Chiquita Brands, Dole Food Company, Del Monte Fresh Produce, Noboa, and Fyffes, who collectively control over three quarters of the banana market.{{Cite journal |last1=Hellin |first1=Jon |last2=Higman |first2=Sophie |date=May 14, 2014 |title=The impact of the multinational companies on the banana sector in Ecuador |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738580 |journal=Research Gate}} These companies own large plantations or contract independent farmers, have their own distribution systems, and skilled marketing strategies to contribute to large economies of scale and marketing power. The corporations have immense power due to the large role the banana industry plays in the global economy. The industry produces large amounts of export revenue, and employs thousands of people across production, distribution networks, marketing, and employees in retail stores. Furthermore, four out of the five top banana exporting countries in 2009, which are Ecuador, Colombia, Philippines, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, are considered banana republic countries, with Latin America accounting for over 83% of world banana exports.{{Cite web |title=EST: Banana facts |url=https://www.fao.org/economic/est/est-commodities/oilcrops/bananas/bananafacts/en/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=www.fao.org}}

Banana republic countries depend on exports, so consumer preferences play a hefty factor in how bananas are produced. Banana exporting countries face significant losses due to unmarketable bananas. There are certifications bananas can receive to be more appealing for consumers, such as the Fair Trade, Organic, and Rainforest Alliance certifications that market sustainability, fair labor conditions, or different growing methods.

External features taken into consideration include being overripe, having insect damage, being short in size, or containing scarring on the peel. Internal features that cause bananas to be rejected include taste, texture, sweetness, and shelf life. The cavendish variety accomplishes being the preferable banana due to its marketability and is the most common banana on the market. The largest importers of bananas are the United States, Japan, and the European Union. The EU imports the majority of bananas, but also contains regulations on the features of the product. The European Union requires bananas to be free of bruises, unripe and green, with the stalk intact, and the banana itself cannot have abnormal curvature.{{Citation |title=Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1333/2011 of 19 December 2011 laying down marketing standards for bananas, rules on the verification of compliance with those marketing standards and requirements for notifications in the banana sector (codification) |date=2011-12-19 |url=https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1464266374037&uri=CELEX:32011R1333 |access-date=2025-04-29 |language=en}}

File:Chiquita bananas.jpg

Chiquita Brands International and the Dole Food Company have shifted their focus of maintaining the environments on their plantations and making agriculture more efficient by breeding and growing more resilient versions of foods, such as Cavendish bananas. Both companies have been working to employ better farming practices, especially regarding the use of pesticides, as both companies have received heavy criticism for the amount and effects of the pesticides they have used on their products. Although the pesticides do not generally represent a safety concern for consumers abroad, they can be harmful to residents and the ecosystems in which they are used.{{Cite journal |last1=Mendez |first1=Annelle |last2=Castillo |first2=Luisa E. |last3=Ruepert |first3=Clemens |last4=Hungerbuehler |first4=Konrad |last5=Ng |first5=Carla A. |date=2018-02-01 |title=Tracking pesticide fate in conventional banana cultivation in Costa Rica: A disconnect between protecting ecosystems and consumer health |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969717325214 |journal=Science of the Total Environment |language=en |volume=613-614 |pages=1250–1262 |doi=10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.09.172 |pmid=28962073 |bibcode=2018ScTEn.613.1250M |issn=0048-9697}} Many banana farmers from Central and South America were exposed to dibromochloropropane (DBCP) from the 1960s to 1980s, which can lead to birth defects, elevated risk of cancer, central nervous system damage, and most commonly, infertility.{{Cite news |date=2016-09-02 |title=Latam banana workers' claims over pesticide are revived in U.S. |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/bananaworkers-pesticide-idUKL1N1BE0SY |access-date=2022-06-30}}{{Cite journal |last1=Whorton |first1=M. Donald |last2=Foliart |first2=Donna E. |date=1983-09-01 |title=Mutagenicity, carcinogenicity and reproductive effects of dibromochloropropane (DBCP) %2883%2990044-1 |journal=Mutation Research/Reviews in Genetic Toxicology |language=en |volume=123 |issue=1 |pages=13–30 |doi=10.1016/0165-1110(83)90044-1 |pmid=6888412 |issn=0165-1110}}

File:Banana Processing.jpg

Both the Dole Food Company and Chiquita Brands International have argued that their labourers and farmers are being treated much better in the 21st century than they were during the height of the banana republics. While workers do have better conditions than they did during the 20th century, these large corporations allegedly still suppress labour union movements through intimidation and harassment. Working conditions on banana plantations are dangerous, with very low wages and long hours in difficult conditions. The workers are not cared for and are often replaced as they have very little policy about job security in the case of sickness or injury. The plantation workers are also exposed to toxic pesticides on a daily basis, causing harm. Unionists who pressure these corporations for better working conditions are commonly targeted and forced to leave their positions. The workers also receive no benefits, and as the plantations are in countries with lax safety regulations, there are minimal health policies.{{cite news |title=$14 for 12 hours of work: behind each banana in Honduras there is a poorly paid peasant |url=https://www.univision.com/univision-news/latin-america/14-for-12-hours-of-work-behind-each-banana-in-honduras-there-is-a-poorly-paid-peasant |access-date=25 July 2023 |work=Univision News |date=17 November 2018}}{{cite news |last1=Chen |first1=Michelle |title=More Than 30 Trade Unionists Have Been Killed in Honduras Since 2009 |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/more-than-30-trade-unionists-have-been-killed-in-honduras-since-2009/ |access-date=25 July 2023 |work=The Nation |date=13 November 2015}}

During the 1970s and 1980s, men migrated to cities for work, leaving women available to work for multinational companies on plantations.  Women represent about a fifth of the workforce in the banana industry,{{Cite journal |last=Pena |first=Karla |date=2022 |title=Land of Gold and Opportunity: Bananas, Gender, and Rural Social Life on the Southern Ecuadorian Coast |url=https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/4a940384-228b-4372-aad5-ee1e29c85e3c/content |journal=Cornell University}} and are known as Bananeras, or women workers on banana plantations.{{Cite journal |last=Bologna |first=Michelle |date=2013 |title=Banana [Mis]representations: A Gendered History of the United Fruit Company and Las Mujeres Bananeras |url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=bgsu1364907554&disposition=inline |journal=Graduate College of Bowling Green State University}} Men generally work in the fields while women have jobs that pertain to selecting, washing, and packaging the bananas. Due to a gendered division of labor, women often work more than one job for income. Jobs on banana plantations that pay more are often more physically difficult and are reserved for men. However, there is little difference in the money paid to men and women for the same tasks completed. Women primarily package bananas, where pay is measured by the amount of boxes that are filled with bananas at the end of each day. The roles of packagers depend on the scale of production and ability of the producer to export bananas, so many women are contracted once or twice a week to work.

Women are often excluded from benefiting from agricultural cooperatives because a majority are not landowners and lack power in the decision-making process. There is no trade union to educate women about legal working rights, according to the Coordinating Body of Latin American Banana and Agro-Industrial Unions (COLSIBA). However, gender quotas are being implemented in agricultural programs to advance gender equality and allow women to be beneficiaries of land.{{Cite journal |last=Cooper |first=Anna |date=2015 |title=Women in the Banana Export Industry Global Overview |url=https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/20b32c86-3fb5-454a-93f9-07477fcc6cdc/content |journal=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations}}  

There have been criticisms of women working in direct contact with pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides through the application of chemicals and washing bags that contain insecticides. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are particularly affected, as pregnant women will work with chemicals until the later stages of pregnancy and will return to work after the birth. Exposure to pesticides, as well as smoke from tobacco, waste burning, and cooking fuel increase the risks of asthma, rhinitis, and allergic skin conditions.{{Cite journal |last1=Alhanti |first1=Brooke |last2=Joode |first2=Berna van Wendel de |last3=Martinez |first3=Manuel Soto |last4=Mora |first4=Ana M. |last5=Gamboa |first5=Leonel Córdoba |last6=Reich |first6=Brian |last7=Lindh |first7=Christian H. |last8=Lépiz |first8=Marcela Quirós |last9=Hoppin |first9=Jane A. |date=2022-07-01 |title=Environmental exposures contribute to respiratory and allergic symptoms among women living in the banana growing regions of Costa Rica |url=https://oem.bmj.com/content/79/7/469 |journal=Occupational and Environmental Medicine |language=en |volume=79 |issue=7 |pages=469–476 |doi=10.1136/oemed-2021-107611 |issn=1351-0711 |pmid=34969778|pmc=9198003 }} Women banana workers often face the challenge of being a caretaker and bananera, as there is limited access to childcare, limited education and training, and a difficulty of working more than one job. Women are often at risk of sexual assault and domestic violence due to issues in management of Occupational Health, Safety, and Environment.

The European Banana Dispute began as the EU attempted to create a single market, or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). However, the EU struggled to commit to the initiative while also honoring the Lomé Convention, the "Banana Protocol" in the Treaty of Rome, and honoring the Accession Treaties. The prior treaties were to ensure that economies of former colonies, or African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries, would have support. Because of prior obligations to former colonies, the banana market was becoming exempt from GATT. A quota of 2 million Latin American bananas were allowed in the EU with a 30% tariff while ACP countries received duty-free importation.

File:Banana_Imports_by_Region.png

Five Latin American countries were contracted with the GATT, and argued the preferential tariffs were discriminatory. Three banana republic countries, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras, plus the United States and Mexico challenged the regulations in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Latin American banana exporting countries asked for the EU banana market to have no preferences whatsoever. The WTO arbitration panel ruled that $192 million was owed to the United States for lost banana sales.

The EU Common Market Organization for Bananas was a collection of efforts to regulate the banana market. The EU was aiming to assure that former colonies would get higher prices for their bananas considering their higher production costs, honor the Lomé Convention, and ensure consumers had an adequate supply of bananas from Latin America.{{Cite web |title= |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/fjil9&id=174 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=HeinOnline}} An agreement was reached in April 2001 between the United States and EU. The EU implemented a system of importation based on historical licensing, with Latin American countries and ACP countries having their own categories of licenses, designated tariffs, and quotas. Chiquita Brands and Dole Food Company together share 44% of the licenses.{{Cite journal |last1=Chacon-Cascante |first1=Adriana |last2=Crespi |first2=John |date=2006 |title=Historical Overview of the European Union Banana Import Policy |url=https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/436/43630208.pdf |journal=Agronomia Costarricense |volume=30 |issue=2}}

File:Banana_(variety-_Koa_e'_Kea)-_Fusarium_wilt_(Panama_disease).jpg

Diseases such as the Panama Disease (fusarium wilt), black sigatoka leaf spot, black leaf streak disease, banana bunchy top disease, Cardano, and Moko disease create challenges for banana republic countries as they generate massive losses for banana farms. Diseases in banana production produce more production costs than any other biotic factor.{{Cite journal |last1=Ploetz |first1=Randy C. |last2=Kema |first2=Gert H. J. |last3=Ma |first3=Li-Jun |date=2015 |title=Impact of Diseases on Export and Smallholder Production of Banana |journal=Annual Review of Phytopathology |language=en |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=269–288 |doi=10.1146/annurev-phyto-080614-120305 |doi-access=free |pmid=26002290 |bibcode=2015AnRvP..53..269P |issn=0066-4286}} Fusarium wilt can survive for over thirty years in the soil, threatening a rapid spread of disease as infected soil can be found on tires, shoes, tools, run-off water, and irrigation systems.{{Cite journal |last1=Swarupa |first1=V. |last2=Ravishankar |first2=K. V. |last3=Rekha |first3=A. |date=2014 |title=Plant defense response against Fusarium oxysporum and strategies to develop tolerant genotypes in banana |journal=Planta |volume=239 |issue=4 |pages=735–751 |doi=10.1007/s00425-013-2024-8 |jstor=43564248 |pmid=24420701 |bibcode=2014Plant.239..735S |issn=0032-0935}}

The most popular banana on the commercial market is the Cavendish banana, a type of banana with no genetic variation to other bananas of its variety. The cavendish is not seeded, and propagates by producing vegetative suckers that can be removed from the parents and planted separately. New sprouts are clones of the parent plant, unless they have a genetic mutation, making them more susceptible to disease. The most popular banana before the Cavendish, the Gros Michel variety, was wiped out by Panama disease due to a lack of genetic evolution to become more resistant to the disease.{{Cite journal |last1=Heslop-Harrison |first1=J. S. |last2=Schwarzacher |first2=Trude |date=2007 |title=Domestication, Genomics and the Future for Banana |journal=Annals of Botany |volume=100 |issue=5 |pages=1073–1084 |doi=10.1093/aob/mcm191 |jstor=42801346 |pmid=17766312 |pmc=2759213 |issn=0305-7364}}

The primary solution used are pesticides and agrochemicals. However, many pesticides have various negative effects on health, the environment, and economy.{{Cite book |url=https://shop.bdspublishing.com/store/bds/detail/workgroup/3-190-109529 |title=Achieving sustainable cultivation of bananas Volume 3: Diseases and pests |date=2024-03-12 |publisher=Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing |isbn=978-1-78676-981-7 |editor-last=University of Queensland, Australia |series=Burleigh Dodds Series in Agricultural Science |doi=10.19103/as.2022.0108 |editor-last2=Drenth |editor-first2=André |editor-last3=Kema |editor-first3=Gert H. J. |editor-last4=Wageningen University, The Netherlands}} Pesticides and other chemicals to ward off disease also account for almost a third of production costs on banana farms. Others have proposed genetic engineering, but it is a controversial topic. Other solutions include removal of affected leaves, but this can affect the period when bananas are harvested for export, known as the green period.  Management systems can also be improved so communication is clear between farmers and different levels of government about the spread of diseases.

{{unreferenced section|date=October 2022}}

Honduras and Guatemala have faced significant challenges with governmental corruption as a result of the dictatorships backed by the U.S. government, Effraín Ríos Montt (1982–1983) for Guatemala, and Roberto Suazo Córdova (1982–1986) for Honduras. The political instability caused by the dictators falling and being replaced with democratically elected presidents left the government with very little power, leading to corruption of the government and the rise of drug cartels. Today, the governments of Guatemala and Honduras still have very little power, as drug cartels control much of the land and are allied with corrupt officials and law enforcement officers. These drug cartels serve as the main transporters of cocaine and other drugs from Latin America to the United States. This has also caused extreme levels of violence, with Honduras having one of the highest homicide rates in the world: 38 per 100,000 people according to UNODC. Guatemala and Honduras also continue to have very low economic diversity, with their primary exports being clothing items and food items. 53% of all exports continue to be sent to the United States.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

File:Pablo Neruda 1963.jpg denounced the corporate subjugation of Latin America.]]

In his book Canto General (General Song, 1950), Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904–73) denounced foreign corporate political dominance of Latin American countries with the four-stanza poem "La United Fruit Co."; the second-stanza reading in part:George Black (1988), p. 33.

... The Fruit Company, Inc.

Reserved for itself the most succulent,

The central coast of my own land,

The delicate waist of the Americas.

It rechristened its territories

As the "Banana Republics",

And over the sleeping dead,

Over the restless heroes

Who brought about the greatness,

The liberty and the flags,

It established a comic opera ...

The novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), by Gabriel García Márquez, depicts the imperialistic capitalism of foreign fruit companies as voracious socio-economic exploitation of natural resources of the fictional South American town of Macondo and its people. Domestically, the corrupt national government of Macondo abets the business policies and labour practices of the foreign corporations, which brutally oppress the workers. In the novel, a specific scene depicts the real-life 1928 Banana Massacre, related to the death of workers who struck against poor conditions in banana plantations in Colombia.

File:Banana Republic of Slovenia graffiti.jpg"]]

The Kingdom of Hawaii, now the U.S. state of Hawaii, was once an independent country under political pressure from American sugar plantation owners, who in 1887 forced King Kalākaua to write a new constitution that benefited American businessmen at the expense of the working class.{{cite book|last=Mirza Ph.D |first=Rocky M.|title=American Invasions: Canada to Afghanistan, 1775 to 2010: Canada to Afghanistan, 1775 to 2010|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=c4wHBI7mZGIC|page=80|location=Indiana}}|date=September 2, 2010|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=978-1-4669-5688-9|page=80}}{{cite book|first=John H. |last=Chambers|title=Hawaii|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=HZpfH2LJoJoC|page=184}}|year=2009|publisher=Interlink Books|isbn=978-1-56656-615-5|pages=184–85}} This constitution is known as the "Bayonet Constitution" due to its threat of force. In the case of Hawaii, the U.S. was also interested in the strategic military significance of the islands, leasing Pearl Harbor and later acquiring Hawaii as a territory.William Adam Russ, The Hawaiian Republic (1894–98): and its struggle to win annexation (Susquehanna U Press, 1992).

Countries that obtained independence from colonial powers in the 20th century have, at times, tended to share traits of banana republics due to the influence of large private corporations in politics;{{cite journal|last1=Corr|first1=Anders S.|last2=Tacujan|first2=Priscilla A.|title=Chinese Political and Economic Influence in the Philippines: Implications for Alliances and the South China Sea Dispute|journal=The Journal of Political Risk (Pub by Corr Analytics Inc.)|date=July 2013|volume=1|issue=3|url=http://www.jpolrisk.com/chinese-political-and-economic-influence-in-the-philippines-implications-for-alliances-and-the-south-china-sea-dispute/#more-124|access-date=7 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150107131942/http://www.jpolrisk.com/chinese-political-and-economic-influence-in-the-philippines-implications-for-alliances-and-the-south-china-sea-dispute/#more-124|archive-date=7 January 2015|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}} examples include the Maldives (resort companies){{cite news|title=Maldives election chaos fuels 'banana republic' fears|url=http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/maldives-election-chaos-fuels-banana-republic-fears|access-date=19 March 2014|newspaper=Asia One News|date=20 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319100011/http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/maldives-election-chaos-fuels-banana-republic-fears|archive-date=19 March 2014|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}} and the Philippines (the tobacco industry, the U.S. government, and corporations).{{cite news|last=Aquino|first=Tricia|title=Which public health policy in ASEAN is most susceptible to tobacco industry influence|url=http://www.interaksyon.com/article/80017/philippine-public-health-policy-most-susceptible-to-tobacco-industry-influence-in-asean---report|access-date=19 March 2014|newspaper=Interaksyon|date=3 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221081109/http://www.interaksyon.com/article/80017/philippine-public-health-policy-most-susceptible-to-tobacco-industry-influence-in-asean---report|archive-date=21 February 2014|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}{{cite encyclopedia |year=2014 |title=Philippines – Period of American influence |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher=Britannica |location=United Kingdom |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/456399/Philippines/23717/The-period-of-US-influence |access-date=2014-03-19 |isbn=978-1-59339-292-5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203210714/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/456399/Philippines/23717/The-period-of-US-influence |archive-date=2014-02-03 |url-status=live}}

On 14 May 1986, then Australian Treasurer Paul Keating stated that Australia might become a banana republic.{{cite news|url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/editorials/banana-republic-transformed/news-story/4712ce1296a03eb9513f34b90cd4ccfd|title=Banana republic transformed|newspaper=The Australian|date=4 September 2019|access-date=29 June 2020|url-access=subscription}} This has received both commentary and criticism{{cite news|last1=Barton|first1=Russell|last2=Short|first2=Michael|title=Keating gloom: $ falls|work=The Age|publisher=Fairfax Media|date=15 May 1986}}{{cite news|last1=Cleary|first1=Paul|title=What will we do when it's all been sold?|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|publisher=Fairfax Media|date=17 May 1996}}{{cite news|last1=Cleary|first1=Paul|title=If the economy's so good, how come the dollar's so bad?|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|publisher=Fairfax Media|date=13 June 1998}} and is seen as part of a turning point in Australia's political and economic history.{{cite book|last1=Crotty|first1=Martin|last2=Andrew Roberts|first2=David|title=Turning Points in Australian History|date=2009|publisher=UNSW Press|location=Sydney Australia |isbn=978-1-921410-56-7|pages=224–238|edition=1st}}

In March 2023, PTI Chairman and former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan said his country had "become a banana republic".{{Cite web |date=2023-03-05 |title=Pakistan becomes 'a banana republic', Imran Khan reacts to his arrest warrants |url=https://www.nation.com.pk/05-Mar-2023/pakistan-becomes-a-banana-republic-imran-khan-reacts-to-his-arrest-warrants |access-date=2023-03-17 |website=The Nation |language=en}}

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• Failed state

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{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/21/from_arbenz_to_zelaya_chiquita_in From Arbenz to Zelaya: Chiquita in Latin America] – video report by Democracy Now!
• [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2777 Cabbages and Kings] – the O. Henry book of short stories wherein he coined the banana republic term
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120816010916/http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/LA260/bananas.htm The Banana Republic: The Myth of the United Fruit Company]
• [https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/deadly-side-americas-banana-obsession Deadly Side: America's Banana Obsession]
• [https://www.bananalink.org.uk/good-practices-banana-industry/ Good Practices in the Banana Industry]
• [https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/shopping-guide/bananas Bananas]

Category:Types of countries

Category:Pejorative terms for forms of government

Category:Political corruption

*

Category:United Fruit Company

Category:O. Henry

Category:Economic development

Category:Commodities

Category:1900s neologisms

Category:Bananas in popular culture

Category:Imperialism studies

Category:Neocolonialism