"China boosts banana growing in Lancang-Mekong region", 13 April 2021

[...] China plans to help countries in the Lancang-Mekong region tap their banana-growing potential, the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences said. [...]

Countries in the Lancang-Mekong area such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have advantages in growing bananas such as lower labor costs and better weather conditions, Wang Anbang, head of the cooperation project for the region's banana industry, said. [...]

The banana industry that China developed in northern Myanmar has helped farmers in the region switch from growing opium poppies and has contributed to China's anti-drug efforts in the border area, said An Guojun, an official with the Ministry of Public Security's Narcotics Control Bureau.

Shwe Thein was one of a thousand opium poppy growers relocated in 2010 to grow nonnarcotic alternatives at the base of Yunnan Jinxin General Agriculture in Kachin state.

"I earn an annual income of 4,500 yuan ($687) by working on the banana base, much higher than growing opium poppies with a yearly income of 800 yuan," Shwe Thein said in a transcript of an interview released by the academy.

The company said it grows bananas on 6,900 hectares of land in Myanmar and employs more than 10,000 workers from the country. It has also invested 40 million yuan in improving local infrastructure. [...]