More bananas are eaten per capita than any other fruit in almost all major industrialized countries. It was believed in the 1980s that per capita consumption would remain the same for these industrialized countries, such as the United States. However, this was before the health conscious consumer became such a mainstay to these populations. Bananas have been shown to be extremely healthy, and this has caused world per capita consumption to rise from 2.9 kg in 1980 to 3.3 kg in 1990 to 3.6 kg in 1996.

To gain a real understanding of the growth of the banana industry in recent times, one must look at import numbers. The FAO has said that import numbers are the most precise way to measure the growth of the industry, since import and export numbers rarely match up. This is due to normal weight losses, human error, or a multitude of other factors.

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