Another snow-white winter morning, and I am looking for that perfect energy boost – a fruit smoothie. Every morning I mix up some of my favourite (well, tropical…) fruits into a delicious blend of vitamins, energy and fibres for a breakfast treat. The basis for this divine mixture are of course bananas – they add the sweetness, thickness, smoothness…and they are the main source of my daily intake of magnesium, manganese, vitamin B-6, vitamin C, and most importantly – potassium. As both B-6 and potassium are responsible for our hormonal balance, they literally keep me from “going bananas”.
In spite of their antioxidant qualities, and benefits for my sugar levels, heart and cognitive health, the reality is that bananas in Bosnia are anything but local. While I always rejoiced at the sight of banana trees in East Africa, on the Greek islands, and even in the coastal areas of Montenegro – they are not a common sight in my country.
Or, at least they were not until a few enthusiasts in Central Bosnia and in Herzegovina decided to try their luck and plant a few trees, which eventually gave fruit (literally!) to real bananas. Now, while banana plantations in Bosnia might be a few (global warming) years away from reality, news of bananas growing in Iceland has given me some hope 🙂
At the moment, however, we import 40 million kilograms of bananas annually – for the population of…well, that’s still uncertain, but definitely under 4 million. Every second banana in B&H comes from Ecuador, and the rest arrive from Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico.
In order to bring bananas closer to home, one of the global distribution centres has recently opened its regional branch in Sarajevo, which is a great news for all banana addicts in the region. Yet, the road my source of potassium travels is slightly frightening – bananas need about twenty days to cross the ocean from Ecuador to Port of Koper in Slovenia, and then another week or two to make it to Bosnia and Herzegovina. So optimistically speaking, a banana spends 3-4 weeks in transit – which is definitely not a good news for my carbon footprint.
And, there is yet another thing that bothers me about bananas – global demand for our energy booster has turned tropical regions into unsustainable mono-cultures – with long (underpaid) working hours, accusations of child labour on plantations, and use of chemicals which have long-term effects on labourers’ health– making bananas a crop with some serious socio-economic and environmental consequences.
So, in order to lower my global impact and “go local”, I choose to replace the bananas in my smoothie with sweet red delights I stored in the freezer last summer – raspberries. With the production of over 10 thousand tons of raspberries a year (most of which are exported to Europe and North America), Bosnia is the 12th global producer and exporter of little red fruit, which I used to pick by the road as a kid. In fact, this amazing fruit can still be found – and enjoyed – growing wild around meadows and forests throughout Bosnia. And with bananas on a possible verge of extinction in the near future, better to start early with local alternatives 🙂
Written by Lana Pašić at https://locallivingbih.com/