Jane Mullaney  is a scientist working in the Food and Nutrition group at AgResearch Palmerston North. Jane is also affiliated with the Riddet Institute for food innovation and is a microbiologist with her PhD in Food Technology.

Jane and colleagues have partnered with Tai Pukenga Ltd to develop a commercial banana industry for the Tairāwhiti/East Coast region. 

Bananas are economically important fruit crops grown in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world and are currently cultivated in over 130 countries, on over 5.5 million hectares with a global production of about 145 million tons (FAOSTAT, 2017).

Bananas serve as a principle source of carbohydrates for millions of people worldwide while in New Zealand, we spend more on bananas than any other fruit, and eat about 18kg of them every year, or roughly two bananas a week.

There are hundreds of different cultivars which differ mainly by the amounts of starch and sugars produced in their fruits however, the only bananas imported to New Zealand are the Cavendish variety. While subtropical, bananas can be grown almost anywhere.

By using tissue culture methods, AgResearch have developed and shared this knowledge with Tai Pukenga to enable the rapid expansion of a banana industry for the East Coast region.

Through DNA sequencing, AgResearch aims to identify cultivars and this information will help inform along with trial farms, which cultivar might be best suited for future commercial work.

Jane and colleagues aim to use tissue culture to produce many banana plants for trialling across the region, to identify which cultivars we already have growing in the region using DNA sequencing and to assess the nutritional benefits of the NZ produced fruit. This project is funded through the Vision Mātauranga Connect Fund.

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