EnvironmentA second cyclone was forecast to cross the southern Andhra Pradesh coast on the night of 2-3 November with gusts of 120 km/h, as the state pays farmers for coconut and banana losses from Cyclone Arnab.
HealthThe Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection found unripe bananas being turned yellow with a banned chemical in 24 hours at Rakhalgachhi, Pabna, and fined the business Tk 50,000; 72 firms in 27 districts were fined the same day.
FruitsThe Cavendish, the world's main export banana, is threatened by the fungal disease TR4; Yelloway, a joint venture of Chiquita and KeyGene, says it has developed a fertile Cavendish that could open the way to disease-resistant hybrids.
AgribusinessTen to fifteen village collectors gather the soft inner pith of banana stems cut down after harvest, and banana blossoms, for wholesale markets at Karwan Bazar, Jatrabari and Gazipur; a blossom bought for Tk 10 sells for Tk 25-30.
FruitsHeavy rain at the end of 2024 helped cut Costa Rica's banana exports from 125.7 million boxes to 110.4 million in 2025; its banana corporation Corbana is breeding resistant hybrids and using drones and soil microbes against disease.
Daily lifeThe Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection fined 80 businesses in 28 districts a total of Tk 10,39,500, destroying chemically ripened bananas and about 204 litres of soybean oil kept in drums once used for urea-formaldehyde.
FruitsSome 30 to 40 truckloads of bananas leave Durgadah in Joypurhat, the north's largest banana market, every day, but the price of a bunch has fallen from Tk 300-400 to Tk 200-250 in two weeks and the market lacks space.
CookingBorn of a wartime tomato shortage in the Philippines, banana ketchup is made from ripe bananas, vinegar, onion, garlic and spices; Ajker Patrika gives a home recipe.
FruitsAfter a 31,081-tonne crop on 705 hectares, a bunch that fetched Tk 1,000 days ago now sells for Tk 300 to 350; growers blame a traders' syndicate, traders blame oversupply and weak demand.
FruitsAsif Awal Utsho grows the Nepali Sagar banana from Madhupur plantlets at Kazihata in Bheramara, Kushtia, and says one planting gives three harvests; the first left him twice his costs.
GalleryBetween the Chelopara rail bridge and the Shah Fateh Ali bridge on the Karatoya, a small playing field turns into a banana market every morning, with Anupam, Champa, Sagar and Shabri bananas brought in from the villages and sold by 9am.
FruitsFresh watermelon at 26 cents and bananas at 31 cents were the cheapest servings of fruit in US shops in 2023, while fresh blackberries, fresh raspberries and canned cherries were the most expensive.
FruitsThe Hatirdia banana market in Monohardi, about half a century old, meets on Sundays and Wednesdays from 8 to 10 in the morning; a bunch sells for Tk 300 to Tk 1,200.
