Growing bananas in Queensland

Bananas are Australia's largest horticultural industry and highest selling supermarket product.

Most production is located in north Queensland regions:

• Kennedy
• Tully
• Innisfail
• Atherton Tableland
• Mossman
• Lakeland
• Hopevale.

The common varieties of bananas are:

• Cavendish
• Lady Finger
• other niche varieties.

Best management practices

The best management practices (BMP) cover:

• environmental guidelines
• on-farm biosecurity.

These voluntary national guidelines encourage continuous improvement and best practice in the banana industry. Both BMPs include a self-assessment checklist and information resources. They're available as a downloadable document or an online questionnaire.

Use the Better Bunch app to record everyday farm practices for your best management practices (BMP). The app is available free if you've completed the online version of the BMP.

Visit Better Bananas for research and case studies.

Economics and business management

• Economic forecasts for Queensland's banana industry.
• Economic case studies and research for banana growers.

Grants and funding

Access grants for on-farm improvements from the Australian Banana Growers' Council.

Maintaining fruit quality

Freshcare offer training courses to give growers and packers the tools to identify and manage food safety and quality risks.

Damage to fruit quality can happen at all points along the supply chain, caused by:

• rough or excessive handling
• inappropriate packing
• packaging failure
• poor temperature management.

Biosecurity

• Movement restrictions apply to banana plants, and banana pest carriers.
• Read the Banana industry biosecurity guideline (PDF, 408KB). The guideline covers management of yellow Sigatoka.
• Create your on-farm biosecurity management plan to reduce the risk of introducing or spreading an infectious disease, pests or weeds.
• Preventative biosecurity measures can help contain outbreaks if they do occur.
• Encourage visitors to use the Farm Check-In tool when entering your agricultural property to minimise the spread of pests and diseases.
• Learn how to identify Panama disease tropical race 4 (TR4).

Pests

• Banana aphid
• Banana flower thrips
• Banana fruit caterpillar
• Banana rust thrips
• Banana scab moth
• Banana weevil borer
• Banana-silvering thrips
• Banana-spotting and fruit-spotting bugs
• Cluster caterpillar
• Fruit piercing moths
• Queensland fruit fly
• Spider mite
• Two-spotted mite
• Sugarcane bud moth

Diseases

• Anthracnose
• Rhizome soft rot
• Banana leaf rust
• Leaf speckle
• Crown rot
• Fruit speckle
• Yellow Sigatoka
• Burrowing nematode

Reportable pests and diseases

• Banana freckle
• Black Sigatoka
• Bunchy top
• Panama disease TR4
• Banana bract mosaic virus
• Moko disease (PDF, 617KB)
• Oriental fruit fly

Industry associations

• Australian Banana Growers' Council (ABGC)
• Hort Innovation (Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited)
• Australian Bananas
• Growcom
• Australian Banana Industry Congress