The Canary Islands banana is now blue. It’s not fiction. Today, the most emblematic product of the archipelago is no longer only grown in the traditional yellow color or in the also new red color, but 80 plants of the Musa blue java variety already grow in the rich volcanic island soil. They are still few, but the blue banana pineapples are now ready to be picked and delight consumers with their “vanilla” flavor, as the people surrounding the ambitious project describe.
Eduardo León is the first and only farmer of this blue banana not only in the Canary Islands but also in Spain. In statements to El Español he indicated that, currently, he has “14,000 yellow banana plants, 750 red banana plants and 80 blue banana plants.” He also revealed that he has the help of the Agricultural Federation of Trade Unions of Tenerife (Fast) and the company Cultivos y Tecnología Agraria de Tenerife (Cultesa) to introduce this new banana.
The arrival of this new variant of the fruit has been carried out under a secret project to which the aforementioned newspaper had access. Two years ago, as revealed, Cultesa began studying in its laboratory the viability of growing blue bananas on the islands, whose first banana trees were planted a year ago on a farm south of Tenerife.
After checking the health guarantee of the plants, “it was already decided to plant the banana trees, produced in Cultesa’s agrobiotechnological laboratory, to evaluate them under field conditions,” explained Leonardo Amador, doctor in Biology and head of I D i at Cultesa.
Although it may surprise you, the blue banana is not a product of genetic engineering, but rather it is another variety that had not been grown in Spain. This fruit is native to Southeast Asia and is grown in many places around the world, such as Hawaii, the Philippines, or even Central America.
Apart from its color, another fact that differentiates this banana from others is its flavor. Sources consulted by the aforementioned media indicate that “it tastes like vanilla.” In addition, the pineapples of this fruit are smaller, weighing between 20 and 30 kilos. It is also worth noting that these bananas lose this characteristic blue as they ripen. Another distinct characteristic of banana peel is its “velvety” texture. “It gives that powdery sensation, it is not as smooth as that of yellow banana,” they described.
To see the blue banana in supermarkets, however, we will have to wait a little longer, since this project is still in the testing phase. However, this fruit will be presented, for the first time, at Fruit Attraction 2023 that will take place in Madrid on October 3. It will be the launch of the new blue banana from the Canary Islands.
