Visit to Canary Island banana plantation in Tenerife

The Canary Islands' banana

The Canary Island banana is one of the most outstanding products in the gastronomy of the islands, and although the banana is a popular fruit all over the world, only in the Canary Islands has it achieved a peculiar flavour that maintains the most outstanding properties of the banana at its best.

It owes its characteristics to the volcanic configuration of a mountainous and rugged landscape, with mild and low temperatures that allow the production of a unique product, sweeter and with more potassium.

This fruit, although not one of the oldest crops in the archipelago, has managed to become one of the most outstanding, being the image of the destination at a gastronomic level and forming part of the eating habits from its arrival to the present day.

It has even taken part in important sporting championships on the islands, mainland Spain and even internationally.

Learn about its history and peculiarities in a banana plantation!

In this activity, we will learn about the history of the banana and its peculiarities through a banana plantation native to the island located in the south of the island of Tenerife, specifically in Las Galletas, the largest area of greenhouse banana cultivation in Tenerife.

In this volcanic territory, the emigration of farmers from the island of La Palma developed an enormous amount of specialist work, since the 1970s, to improve the production of Canary Island bananas and export more than 26,000 tonnes each year to the mainland and European markets.

The farm to be visited began with the cultivation of bananas in 1977, from the union and entrepreneurship of several family members Adolfo Guerra González and Margarita Hernández Pérez. Both come from a long family saga of banana farmers from S/C de La Palma and San Andrés y Sauces.

Like the rest of the nearby farms, this family farm overcame the difficult conditions of the territory for agricultural implantation: strong sunshine and wind, volcanic lava flows, unavailability of water, large investments in capital and machinery, soils poor in organic matter; and in which old terraces were also used for tomato cultivation.

Today it represents an example of overcoming and a place where the banana is shown in its greatest splendour through a 100% sustainable cultivation that will show us its life cycle and development work.

At the end, we can also enjoy a tasting of products made from bananas.

‍