Bananas on the Lancang: grown in Yunnan, destined for Shanxi
Along the banks of the Lancang in Yunnan, bananas grown from the river’s water are part of a complex network of national trade. Luc Forsyth and Gareth Bright have set out on a journey to follow the Mekong river from sea to source, The Diplomat will be sharing some of the stories they’ve found along the way. After spending several days in the town of Simaogang documenting the dredging of the Lancang’s sand, a surprise invitation allows us to discover the workings of Yunnan’s banana industry. We could see lengths of pipe running from the rows of banana trees to the river below, so we knew that there was a connection between the water and the fruit. And since we’d decided at the project’s inception that we would remain flexible to whatever opportunities presented themselves and not adhere too rigidly to any sort of schedule, accepting the invitation seemed like the only sensible thing to do.
