Exports from fruit producing countries have led to a selection and reduction of a few agricultural cultivars, which suffer least from transport, which are known and appreciated by the consumer of the import country and which have a high market value, and which, however, as in case of bananas and pineapple are grown only under heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers. The export market is dominated by three International Fresh Fruit Companies, Chiquita, Del Monte and Dole, leaving at present only some room for sustainable production and Fair Trade. There are four reasons for the reduction in agro-biodiversity; 1) only few cultivars take up more agricultural land and are marketed for export, 2) the only export banana Cavendish is susceptible to the dangerous Black Sigatoka fungus, 3) about 40-50 airborne treatments with the extremely poisonous pesticide Paraquat are necessary, affecting man and ecosystem biodiversity and 4) Land use and land use change LULUC of forests and original farmland to support cash crops reduce the original biodiversity.
Future-a positive outlook: Following the entire production-consumption chain, with the aid of Fair trade organization the organic and fair trade produce is gaining momentum; education of the consumer in biodiversity and sustainability is progressing, research on crop wild relatives already was successful for the banana resistant to the Black Sigatoka fungus, the banana genome sequence of Musa acuminata has been decoded, and gene technology on fungus resistant species was successful.