A dried banana maker is preparing the bananas for drying
Coming to Soksabike’s half day tour is the new dried banana stop. The dried banana stop is the was discovered by our tour guide by Sopheap who was cycling to Ekphnom area in Donteav Village in March and found a community of dried banana producers who were really interesting. To get to the dried banana stop we go along the road to Ekphnom where there are many villagers who work as dried banana makers. In our project we have selected one family who make dried banana and are willing to open their home to Soksabike guests and share their livilihood skills with us. The family prepare for our visits by offering a place for our guests to sit and taste their product. When we arrive there, we talk with the family about how they make their dried banana, their lifestyle, fruit in Cambodia, where they sell their product and how much it sells for.
The banana stop owner is very friendly and informative. Any questions that our tour guides have, she answers us as best she can. She is around 40 years old and is not yet married. She lives with her old mother and her mother also doesn’t have a husband.
Upon arriving at the Banana stop, we talk about the fruit in Cambodia. There are numerous kinds of fruit in Cambodia. The fruits can be used to make cakes or just sold in their original form. If we talk about the banana fruit, there are many kinds of products that Cambodians use bananas for. However, the villagers in Donteav Village mostly make dried banana. Cambodia is also renowned for its fresh fruit that is grown without the use of chemicals. Dried banana is very popular in Cambodia and most people like to eat it. For foreigners to get a sense of what Cambodian dried banana is like, I have been told to describe it as a ‘banana roll up’.
Drying the bananas under the sun take around three hours
One more thing the tour guide will tell you is the way to make dried banana. To make dried banana use the following steps:
- Step 1: peel ripe bananas
- Step 2: cut banana vertically into long thin slices
- Step 3: put banana slices on bamboo lattice out the front of your house to dry in the sun
- Step 4: Do it all again for a new batch so that more bananas are being prepared while others are drying (drying takes around 3-4 hours).
This work uses human labour rather than machines and it is therefore difficult to generate significant profit from it. Many people know about her product and go directly to her house to get them, but even at maximum production the seller can only support her everyday diet (fish, rice, etc) on her sales.
After talking about the dried banana industry in Battambang and learning how it is made guests get to try the banana hot of the bamboo lattice. Dried banana tastes both sour and sweet. We can eat dried banana as a snack on tour and guests can purchase some for later. Cambodian people like to eat dried banana when they feel tired or hungry.
We are excited to take guests to this new stop on the Soksabike tour and look forward to educating visitors on Battambang’s dried banana industry as well as the different ways Cambodian’s package and sell fruit. Be sure to come and check it out when you’re in Battambang next!
