Description

Banana Split was made with support from the Canadian International Development Agency and the International Development Research Centre. It explores some of the ongoing issues that confront consumers of the world’s most popular fruit.

The banana is the cheapest fruit you can buy in Canada at any time of the year and Canadians eat approximately 3 billion bananas a year. In Canadian supermarkets bananas account for over 10% of total sales in the produce section and 1% of total sales. All this despite the fact that the nearest plantation is 5000 kilometers away and the banana is the most perishable fruit on our store shelves. Banana Split takes the viewer on a journey that begins with the hustle and bustle of a fruit market in Thunder Bay, Ontario and ends up with an examination of the daily challenges of life in Honduras. In addition to being a popular fruit in Canada, bananas are used as a staple food in more than 100 tropical and sub-tropical countries.
In the developing world, bananas rank behind rice, wheat and corn as the most important staple food crops. Filmed in Canada, the United States, Honduras and France, Banana Split explores the North/South split between Canadian consumers and the people whose lives revolve around the “curvaceous fruit from the herbaceous plant.”