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The first recorded sale of bananas here was back in April 1633 when the herbalist and botanist Thomas Johnson got hold of some for his shop in central London. It’s thought they came from Bermuda. But the fruit wasn’t common in Europe until it began to be imported from the Caribbean around 1900. It’s now one of the nation’s favourite fruits with each person consuming on average 100 bananas a year. Many of those have been brought to us by giant fruit companies, some of which in the past have controlled vast territories and have been accused of running entire countries – the so-called banana republics. Gemma Newby visits the remnants of a once-productive plantation in the Dominican Republic.

First broadcast on From Our Own Correspondent, 1 April 2017.