Fungus threatens banana population
A fungus could cause a global shortage of bananas.
''The sooner we have replacements for Cavendish that are resistant to Panama the better but this is going to take years.''
The fungus, known as Fusarium Wilt TR4 or the Panama disease, restricts water and nutrients to the most popular Cavendish variety of the fruit until it dies and has already spread from southeast Asia to Africa and the Middle East and experts say it won't be long until it reaches Europe.
Gert Kema, the director of a banana research programme at Wageningen University in Holland, said: ''It's not a question of whether it will arrive but when. There's no prevention.
''The sooner we have replacements for Cavendish that are resistant to Panama the better but this is going to take years.''
An estimated five billion bananas a year are eaten in the United Kingdom.