Japan Has a $6 Banana with an Edible Peel

Farmers from D&T Farms in Okayama prefecture, Japan, has invented a new type of banana where you don’t have to peel the skin off to enjoy the amazingly sweet and nutritious fruit.

This banana with edible peel, dubbed as Mongee Banana, is only available in a regional Japanese retail outlet Tenmanya Okayama on limited stocks of small, 10-banana batches weekly, according to Quartz.

HI Kyosyke ! Have you tasted it? Mongee Banana, the most interresting thing about this banana is that you can eat the skin! I’ts only grown in OKAYAMA Perfecture, and they only sell 10 bananas per week. D&T Farm in Okayama.@ffffujiwara pic.twitter.com/jLKj1FCnSx

— hapa (@hapahr) January 27, 2018

Mongee Banana goes through a very meticulous process before farmers could achieve the edible peel type of the fruit. Normally, bananas grow on temperatures that usually play around 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius), but D&T Farms grow the banana trees at temperatures as low as minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius).

After the initial phase, the farmers would then move and replant the trees at its normal temperature 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the farm’s spokesman, Tetsuya Tanaka, said New York Post reported. This process would encourage the banana to rapidly grow, thus leaving it with a peel with the texture of a lettuce and much sweeter than the average ones.

Interestingly enough, the process actually started out as technical development manager Setsuzo Tanaka’s little research “hobby” that eventually evolved into its current form.

While it may sound really enticing, not everyone might actually jump into it and try the Mongee Banana. Due to its highly complex process, D&T Farms sells this product at a much higher price of 648 yen ($5.96) per piece.

SoraNews24, in its December article, went into details on how the experience was when they tried the Mongee Banana. It said that the skin is virtually thin unlike the normal ones where its usually tough and fibrous. The report also said that this type of banana is sweeter with 24.8 grams of sugar unlike the 18.3 grams found in the normal bananas.

There is also a waiting time before one could actually eat the banana. According to the report, they had to wait about two days for the fruit to ripen before they could consume it.

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons / MartinThoma

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Contributer : NextShark