From Banana to Economy: The Hidden Potential Within Diverse Banana Products 

In Nepal, bananas are mostly known only as a fruit. But globally, businesses produce multiple products from bananas, including:

• Banana flour 
• Banana powder
• Banana nice cream
• Banana fiber products
• Banana leaf plates

Banana cultivation is also expanding rapidly in Nepal. Data shows that bananas are grown on 23,404 hectares of land in Nepal. Yet most farmers are still earning a limited income, stuck at the stage of selling only raw or ripe fruit.

Source: MoALD, 2079/80

However, from a single banana plant, different components such as the fruit and peel can be transformed into products like chips, jam, powder, tea, and wine.

👉 In other words, a banana is not just a fruit - it is a multi-layer economic resource capable of generating value across food processing, wellness products, and rural enterprise industries.

In Nepal, most banana peels are either thrown away directly or used to make compost. But in reality, the banana peel itself is the most neglected resource of the banana economy. 

The peel accounts for about 30% to 40% of the total weight of a banana. This means that if a banana chip factory uses 2 tons of raw bananas daily, it produces 600–800 kilograms of peel.

Source:  Palacios-Ponce et. al. 2017

👉 If processed properly, this peel can be transformed into products such as banana peel powder and banana peel tea.

Making powder from banana peels does not require a very large industry.

• Wash the bananas thoroughly with water
• Separate the fruit from the peel
• Cut the peel into small pieces
• Soak in a 0.5% citric acid solution for 10 minutes
• Dry at 40°C for about 48 hours
• Use a grinder to make a fine powder
• Sift through a small mesh/filter to remove large particles for a uniform texture 
• Store in an airtight package

Source:  Palacios-Ponce et. al. 2017

👉 Citric acid treatment helps reduce enzymatic browning, which helps maintain the color and quality of the powder. Similarly, because the drying process reduces moisture, the shelf life also increases.

The banana peels, after drying, can become the raw material for herbal tea bags. The initial process for making banana peel tea bags is the same as that for banana peel powder. 

Once dried at 40°C for about 48 hours, the peels are lightly crushed into flakes and packed into tea filter paper.

👉 For tea bags, not very fine powder, but coarse flakes are used.

For banana chips, unripe bananas are sliced and fried (or dehydrated) to create a crispy product.

• Select and peel unripe bananas
• Cut into uniformly thin slices
• Dip lightly in salt or citric solution (for browning control)
• Deep fry or vacuum fry
• Remove excess oil and cool
• Package

👉  2.5–3.5 kg raw banana → 1 kg banana chips

Source:  Banana Process

Banana jam is made using overripe bananas, where the pulp is cooked with sugar, acid, and pectin to concentrate it.

• Make a mash of overripe bananas
• Mix with sugar and pectin
• Heat under controlled boiling to make a thick paste
• Use citric acid to balance acidity
• Hot fill and seal

👉  1.8–2.2 kg ripe banana → 1 kg banana jam

Source:  Asano et. al. (2021)

Banana wine production is a fermentation process where sugar is converted into alcohol and solids are removed.

• Crush ripe banana pulp
• Extract juice
• Adjust sugar content (must preparation)
• Ferment with yeast (7–21 days)
• Filter and remove sediment
• Age and bottle

👉   10 kg of ripe bananas can produce approximately 7–10 liters of banana wine.

Source: Kitchen Archives

Online marketplace data from Daraz shows that even simple food processing makes bananas considerably more valuable:

• Banana Chips (100 gm) = NPR 245 | product rating 4.6/5
• Banana Jam (500 gm) = NPR 250 | product rating 3.8/5

Online market (Ubuy) data clearly shows this:

• Banana Peel Powder (113.4 gm) = NPR 1,871 | product rating 4.2/5
• Banana Peel Tea (450 gm) = NPR 3,540 | product rating 3.8/5

Sources:  (Daraz; Ubuy - market price extracted on 24/5/2026)

Although there is great potential to make products like chips, jam, powder, tea, and wine from bananas, this business in Nepal faces several practical challenges:

• Large fluctuations in raw material prices due to seasonal production
• High energy costs for drying, frying, and processing
• Quality instability in moisture, color, taste, and shelf life
• Lack of food processing infrastructure in rural areas
• Competition from imported and unbranded products
• Weak investment in packaging, branding, and certification
• Limited market awareness for wine and wellness products

If the right strategy is adopted, these challenges themselves can become new business opportunities:

• Reduce energy costs by using solar or hybrid drying systems
• Stabilize quality using citric acid treatment and proper drying techniques
• Ensure raw material supply through farmer–processor linkages or contract farming
• Invest in hygienic packaging and food safety standards
• Brand banana peel products as functional wellness products
• Target tourism, café, wellness, organic, and export markets

If bananas are sold without processing, a farmer's income remains limited to the lowest level.    

But when the same banana enters the market through processing and branding, its value increases many times over.

👉  The challenge in Nepal’s banana economy is not only production volume - it is the lack of value transformation.