Banana production in Panama that United Brands would expand its production in Panama because bananas could be produced more cheaply in Costa Rica and Ecuador. The history of banana production in Panama virtually coincides with that of United Brands, which has been in Panama since 1899. The company built railroads, port facilities, and storage areas for the processing and export of bananas. In the 1930s, a disease seriously curtailed banana production. In the 1950s disease resistant plants were developed, and production increased rapidly. In the early 1970s, a "banana war" erupted when banana-producing countries disagreed among themselves and with United Brands about an export
Agriculture in Panama made land titling more necessary. Moreover, insecure tenure has been a particularly severe constraint to improved techniques and to commercial crop production. The cost of titling a piece of land has been too high for most subsistence farmers. Between 1969 and 1977, the government attempted to redistribute land. In the late 1980s the distribution of land and farm incomes remained very unequal. In 1980, 58.9 percent of farms had an annual income below US$200. The issue of unequal land distribution has not been as explosive in Panama as in many other Latin American countries. This was because of the service-oriented