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The Frozen Banana Republic

posted by on Thursday December 01 2016, @01:02PM   
from the there's-always-money-in-the-banana-stand dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

"Iceland is the king of the banana republics!" host Stephen Fry once declared confidently on the popular British game show "QI."

That sounds implausible: Just look at the island nation's pitted igneous landscape and brutal climate. But the claim isn't as ridiculous as it sounds. A rumor has circulated for the last 60 years proclaiming Iceland to be the banana capital of Europe.

Spoiler alert: It's not. But where did this rumor come from? Can Iceland even grow bananas? With average temperatures registering between 32 Fahrenheit in winter and a tepid 50 at the height of summer, Iceland's climate seems most suitable for growing mold and frostbite.

But Iceland's secret to agricultural innovation lies beneath the surface — way beneath.

Now we have all we need to colonize Antarctica.

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Original Submission

• Re:It isn't? Re:It isn't? (Score: 3, Informative) by zocalo on Thursday December 01 2016, @02:20PM

  by zocalo (302) on Thursday December 01 2016, @02:20PM (#435427)

  They've been doing this for years and it was well established when I first visited Iceland over a decade ago, albeit for mostly local consumption, as it's a cheaper way to get fresh fruit and veg than importing it from North America and Europe. Hveragerði, the town in TFA, is just off the N1 road on the south coast and any observant tourists can't but help to notice the large number of sizeable greenhouses as they drive by on their way to the tourist attractions of the waterfalls and glacial lagoon further East as some of them are right next to the road. I suspect few actually stop there though; the larger town of Selfoss a little further East is a much better tourist rest stop and other than a geothermal park there's not a great deal else to see.
  
  I'm not sure about the financial viability of exporting the product though; the quality of fruit and veg - even the locally produced stuff - generally isn't that great compared to what you'd expect to see in the US and continental Europe, albeit still an improvement on stuff that has been shipped to Iceland from overseas. There are also not all that many acres of greenhouses; even with year-round production and Iceland's modest population I suspect they'll struggle just to meet local demand, let alone have any excess for export in any kind of bulk necessary to cover costs - except maybe as a niche (read "expensive") product for hipsters.

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• Re:It isn't? (Score: 1) by Arik on Thursday December 01 2016, @05:06PM

  by Arik (4543) on Thursday December 01 2016, @05:06PM (#435521) Journal

  Yeah there's no way they'll compete in the export market against countries with cheap labor and much better climate.
  
  They'd be foolish to even try that.
  
  On the other hand growing enough of this stuff for local use makes a lot of sense.
  
  But back to them not being the banana capital of Europe? Why not? Sure it's modest but where else in Europe are bananas grown at all? Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece have the climate for it but do they actually grow any? If yes, that should have been stated, maybe a little extra detail on that would be nice. If no then why say it's not true?

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  If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?

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