There are a lot of concerns surrounding the banana industry including managing biosecurity threats, balancing environmental protection with productivity and profitability, environmental regulation, increasing market and assurance reporting, rising costs of production, and the impact of natural disasters and events.
Since 2017, the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (the department) has continued to work with ABGC on a number of programs and initiatives to help address those challenges within its remit.
Some fun facts:
- The banana industry is a major economic driver in Far North Queensland and a key employer in Tully, Innisfail, Mareeba, Kennedy, Lakeland and Carnarvon.
- The Far North Queensland banana industry produces 94% of the nation’s bananas and contributes $1.276 billion annually.
I toured Bolinda Farms which is one of the many farms in the Tully region. Like many banana farms, Bolinda Farms have been impacted by both flooding but are also losing their crop due to Panama TR4 disease. Barrie and his amazing team at Mackay Bananas have put together some incredible innovations to combat this including banana breeding. Very interesting stuff!
Thank you to Barrie and Tayla for showing us around.- March 10, 2025
I love bananas. I pretty much lived off them during my campaigning and still start every morning with a banana. Our banana growers are legends and I was lucky enough to meet a few of these legends recently. I headed down the coast to Tully to meet with Leon Collis from Collis Farms as well as Barrie and Tayla Mackay from Mackay Bananas. I also met with Australian Banana Growers Kathryn and Leanne.
