The Royal Banana Monopoly ( it, Regia Azienda Monopolio Banane, RAMB) was a
state-owned enterprise
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a Government, government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn Profit (econom ...
founded in
Mogadishu in 1935, to transport and market bananas harvested in
Italian Somalia throughout the rest of the
Italian Empire, directly under the control of the
Colonial Ministry
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 aut ...
.
Even if the last transport of bananas to Italy happened in early 1940, it survived the first years of
WW2 – and officially lasted until 1946.
History
When the price of cotton plummeted after 1929, bananas became the most profitable crop in the empire. The RAMB had a small fleet of seven ships, including four newly commissioned
banana boats which transported bananas quickly from the
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...
to Europe. The RAMB worked directly with Italian banana producers in
Giuba and
Genale, who were represented by the Federation of Banana Growers of Somalia (FEBAS).
In 1939, were transported 450000 tn of bananas to Italy by the four RAMB ships ("
Ramb I, "
Ramb II", "
Ramb III","
Ramb IV") and 3 other cargo ships (the "Capitan Cecchi", the "Capitan Bottego" and the "Duca degli Abruzzi").
Following Italy's entry into
World War II, the banana boats were reclassified for naval use and saw service off the coast of Africa and in the
Mediterranean. Of its seven ships, only
Ramb III survived the war and was converted to a personal yacht for
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
, president of
SFR Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...
.
After Italy
regained administrative control of Somalia in 1950, the government reactivated the Banana Monopoly as the ''Azienda Monopolio Banana'' (AMB) with the intent of revitalizing the heavily damaged agricultural industry.
The AMB continued to regulate the price and marketing of bananas in Somalia until its dissolution in 1964, four years after the country gained independence.
Fleet
References
Bibliography
* ''Guida dell'Africa Orientale'', C.T.I., Milano 1938.
* Calendario Atlante De Agostini, Novara 1960.
* ''Banane Fasciste: breve storia della banana italica ai tempi dell'autarchia'', Sergio Salvi, Affinità Elettive ed., Ancona 2018.
{{Authority control
Italian Somaliland
Banana production
Government-owned companies of Italy
Italian companies established in 1935
Agriculture companies of Italy
1935 establishments in Italian Somaliland
Defunct companies of Somalia
Companies based in Mogadishu