<P> Commercial banana production in the United States is relatively limited in scale and economic impact . While Americans eat 26 pounds (12 kg) of bananas per person per year, the vast majority of the fruit is imported from other countries, chiefly Central and South America, where the US has previously occupied areas containing banana plantations, and controlled the importation of bananas via various fruit companies, such as Dole and Chiquita . </P> <P> The first commercial banana farm in the United States was established in Florida, near Silver Lake, in 1876 . A number of independent banana farms and cultivars have been located in a number of areas, reaching as far north as the southern Midwest and Ohio river, where wild banana trees can be found along the banks of the Ohio at far southern Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri, just north of Kentucky . This region equates roughly with the northernmost terminus of the subtropical crop - growing region of the US, which ends at about Cincinnati, Ohio, and further east in cities and locations such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New York City and Long Island in New York, and coastal regions of southern New England . Banana growth further west along this ecological transition line, such as in central to northern Missouri and northern Kansas / far southern Nebraska is highly dubious and uncertain, due to extreme temperature fluctuations and an increase in aridity . </P> <P> Other states that have been popular locations for independent banana farming have been Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, North Carolina, Hawaii, Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, and Maryland . Florida has seen a number of independent and big - name banana cultivars inhabit its land throughout history . </P>

When did bananas become popular in the us