A rise in demand for organic food has been accompanied by a decline in the amount of land in organic production.

But his promotion of organic production has slowly found mainstream favour and now chimes very much with the affluent middle class.

The total area under organic production has fallen by almost a fifth since 2008.

Many farmers are believed to have abandoned organic production when demand fell for several years from 2009 during the economic downturn.

So supporting best-practice banana-growing may be a sound ecological investment: and organic production, though tricky, eliminates the heavy use of agrochemicals.