In the village of Banfi, in Štrigova at the far north of Croatia's Međimurje region, a family is growing something you would not expect between the wine hills: bananas. The Žižek family planted one of the largest plantations of the Indian banana — also known as pawpaw, or asimina — in this part of Europe a few years ago, and it is now home to around 3,000 plants.
Seedlings for a plantation that size are pricey, so the family took the slow route. They bought fruit from Italy, pulled the seeds out by hand, processed and germinated them, then grafted the young rootstocks themselves. Almost everything germinated, Ivan Žižek says, and the project took off from there.
The crop suits the northern Croatian climate better than you might think. The fruit tolerates low temperatures well and is largely left alone by diseases, which is what convinced the family to try it in the first place. The trees are not yet at full production, so for now the harvest is sold as fresh fruit only. Once a tree hits full yield it can produce around 20 kilograms, and the plan is to send just 20 to 30 percent of the crop to retail chains. The rest is earmarked for processing: craft breweries, jams, liqueurs and aromatic wines, with cosmetic products possibly to follow in a year or two.
It has not all been smooth. Heavy hail in June damaged this year's crop, though early tastings of the earlier varieties have been encouraging — good quality and tasty inside, according to Ivan.
And the bananas are only part of the experiment. Along the edge of the plantation the family is also growing 16 pistachio trees, a species native to the Middle East, and 65 feijoa bushes, originally from South America. It turns a corner of Croatia better known for vineyards into a small showcase of global fruit.
Why should a traveller care? Međimurje is already one of Croatia's quieter food-and-wine corners — rolling hills, spa towns and local wines a short drive from the Hungarian and Slovenian borders — and stories like this show how inventive its producers are. If agritourism develops around the plantation, a taste of homegrown pawpaw jam or a banana-infused craft beer in northern Croatia could become a genuinely odd souvenir. Keep it on the list if you are road-tripping between Zagreb and the Međimurje wine roads in the next few years.
