Is Iceland Europe’s largest banana-producing country? If you’ve visited Iceland you may have heard this before. Around 100 banana plants exist in a geothermally-heated greenhouse in Hveragerði.
The greenhouse is part of the Agriculture University of Iceland’s campus in Reykir and the fruit is only used in-house while the bananas sold on the market in Iceland are imported.
The first banana tree was planted in Iceland in 1942 and the first tree was planted in the greenhouse a decade later but it was not deemed profitable to try to produce enough fruit for sale on the market.
According to longtime employee of the greenhouse, Elías Óskarsson, who was interviewed by Morgunblaðið over the weekend, the temperature in the greenhouse is 20-25ºC (68-77ºF) with a humidity level of 80 to 90 percent, which is produced by the plants themselves.
