Our 7 favourite facts about the world’s oldest fruit

Fact 1. How many bananas do we eat?

Australians eat a whopping 5,000,000 bananas each day. If you laid each banana out, one after the other, it would cover close to 900 kilometres. That’s the same distance as a trip from Sydney all the way to Melbourne!

Fact 2. So just how old are bananas?

Well, bananas are more than 10,000 years old. However, the earliest bananas were quite different to the ones of today. They had many large, hard seeds, and it wasn’t until two varieties of wild bananas were cross-bred in Africa that the banana we know today came to be.

Fact 3. Where do bananas grow?

More than 90% of Australia’s bananas are produced in the tropical growing regions of northern Queensland. Other production areas include parts of the Northern Territory, New South Wales and Western Australia.

Fact 4. When I go to the supermarket, where are my bananas from?

All fresh bananas available are grown in Australia. This is because bananas cannot be imported into the country due to the threat of pests and disease.

Fact 5. Bananas v humans

Bananas are composed of 75% water. That’s 15% more than the human body!

Fact 6. Why do bananas bend?

Once the banana has developed, instead of growing towards the ground, it instead continues growing against gravity. This process is known as negative geotropism.

Fact 7. What are the benefits of bananas?

Bananas are the best fruit source of vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 is essential as it assists with the formation of red blood cells. This helps influence brain development, immune function and can even help improve your mood!

Go bananas over at Australian Bananas for more information and recipes.