Banana is sometimes described as the perfect fruit: full of energy, hygienically enclosed, easy to peel, to hold and to eat. The Cavendish banana is the best-known. This emerged from obscurity in the 1950s and has become the banana industry standard. Grown on vast banana estates, it fills supermarket shelves all over the world. However, only one banana in eight is exported, that is to say a little less than 15% of the more than 106 million tonnes of bananas grown in the world. Indeed, most bananas are grown by small farmers for family consumption or for sale on local markets.