<P> Bananas have been an important source of disagreement in the Doha Round of trade talks . A study for ICTSD showed that the new deal on EU banana import tariffs will be a boon to Latin American exporters but would trigger a drop in exports of the fruit from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries . </P> <P> Bananas are among the most widely consumed foods in the world . Chiquita, Del Monte, Dole, and Fyffes grow their own bananas in Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras . Banana plantations are capital intensive and demand significant expertise . The majority of independent growers are large and wealthy landowners in these countries . Producers have attempted to raise prices via marketing them as "fair trade" or Rainforest Alliance - certified in some countries . </P> <P> The banana has an extensive trade history starting with firms such as the Irish Fyffes and the US United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) at the end of the 19th century . For much of the 20th century, bananas and coffee dominated the export economies of Central America . In the 1930s, bananas and coffee made up as much as 75% of the region's exports . As late as 1960, the two crops accounted for 67% of the exports from the region . Though the two were grown in similar regions, they tended not to be distributed together . The United Fruit Company based its business almost entirely on the banana trade, because the coffee trade proved too difficult to control . The term "banana republic" has been applied to most countries in Central America, but from a strict economic perspective only Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama had economies dominated by the banana trade . </P> <P> The European Union has traditionally imported many of its bananas from former European Caribbean colonies, paying guaranteed prices above global market rates (see Lomé Convention). These arrangements have now been largely withdrawn under pressure from other major trading powers, principally the United States . The withdrawal of these indirect subsidies to Caribbean producers is expected to favour the more efficient banana producers of Central America, in which American companies have an economic interest . In addition, small - scale Caribbean producers are finding it difficult to comply with increasingly strict certification requirements . Some support is being provided to Caribbean countries under the EU's Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM). </P>

When were bananas introduced to the united states