Courtesy of the minds behind Chiquita.
Banana lovers have been in for a rollercoaster of emotions these past few weeks. The port strike, which has since been resolved, caused many Americans to panic-buy bananas for fear there would be a shortage. Now, stocked with extra bananas, we’re in the clear—at least through January when the new contract expires—so banana bread seems to be in many people’s futures.
While the port strike didn’t actually cause a banana shortage in the U.S., that’s not the only thing that could be impacting the fruit’s availability. We’ve been living in what BBC deems a “banana pandemic” for decades now as Tropical Race 4 (TR4) and Black Leaf Streak Disease (Black Sigatoka) take out banana crops across many countries.
For years, scientists have been looking for a way to create a banana that is resistant to these devastating diseases. Now, after three years of “intensive research,” Chiquita has found one.
Chiquita Creates New Disease-Resistant Banana Variety
Chiquita teamed up with KeyGene, MusaRadix, and Wageningen University & Research to create a new banana hybrid called Yelloway One.
The new banana has all the same taste, texture, look, and shelf life of the traditional Cavendish banana that Chiquita sells, but with the added benefit of disease-fighting power that will, ideally, lower the chance of banana shortages in the future. Yelloway One is the first banana that can resist TR4 and partially resist Black Sigatoka thanks to advanced “crossbreeding,” “DNA sequencing, and genetic analysis.”
In addition to the disease immunity, the new method has “dramatically shortened the traditional breeding timeline,” meaning the minds behind the Yelloway initiative have gotten quicker results.
The Yelloway One bananas are currently “approaching flowering and fruit-bearing stages” in the initial greenhouse tests, according to Chiquita. So, the next step is to send them to the fields.
Yelloway One bananas will undergo real-world trials in the Philippines and Indonesia, which have been majorly impacted by TR4 and Black Sigatoka diseases, to ensure they are ready for commercial breeding.
Chiquita is hoping to roll the Yelloway One bananas out to markets by 2028, and it won’t stop there. The entire initiative is meant to change banana cultivation forever so the pathogens will stop wiping out bananas—saving the banana industry millions of dollars every year and limiting banana shortages in the future.
After Yelloway One, Chiquita and its partners intend to develop more disease-resistant varieties, so we consumers won’t have to worry about stocking our freezers with mushy bananas for baking ever again.
Read the original article on All Recipes.