122 THE BANANA 



AVERAGE COMPOSITION PERCENTAGES 



potatoes is very well illustrated in the following statement * 

 by the United States Consul at Port Antonio, Jamaica : 



" While Jamaica exported nearly twice as many 

 bananas last year as any other country, the United States 

 imported more than five times as many as any other 

 country. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1912, the 

 bananas imported into the United States reached the 

 enormous total of 44,520,539 bunches, valued at 

 $14,368,330, an average of 32.3 cents a bunch, as the 

 market value shown in American consular invoices certified 

 at the shipping ports. Great Britain imported during the 

 calendar year 1911 a total of 6,714,479 bunches, value 

 $8,943,099, an average of $1.33 cents a bunch, the value 

 fixed at the importing ports. During the same year the 

 value of bananas (including banana food products) im- 

 ported into Germany amounted to $1,974,046. It should 

 be stated that some of the bananas imported into Great 

 Britain are sent to Germany and other countries of 

 Northern Europe, and that Hamburg, which is a great 

 distributing centre, ships bananas arriving at that port 

 to Scandinavia and elsewhere. . . . Estimating the average 

 number of bananas at 140 to the bunch, it appears that 

 the people of the United States consume over 6,000,000,000 

 bananas a year, or more than five dozen for every man, 

 woman, and child in the United States, including Alaska 

 * United States Daily Consular and Trade Reports, December 26, 1912. 



