Ambon Kuning Banana

The ambon kuking banana cultivar (of the species Musa acuminata) is one of hundreds of banana varieties found in Indonesia. Its name refers to the color of its peel: kuking in the local languages means yellow.

In Yogyakarta, the ambon kuning banana can be found at Sleman, Bantul and Gunung Kidul. In Imogiri traditional market, most of ambon kuning come from Bantul (southern area of Yogya province). It means, ambon kuning grows and exists in traditional people.
The plants are 170-200 cm of height, 10-15 cm of branch’s diameter. The branch’s color is green with lot of black spots which are spreaded along the branch. The side of leaves’s stem is opened and has red to purple colored. The length of Ambon kuning’s leave is about 160 – 170 cm, and has 50 – 60 cm width. Raw ambon kuning has green colored and riped (ready to harvest) ambon kuning has yellow green colored.
From the gastronomic perspective, usually, people consume ambon kuning directly as fresh fruit.

Sleman is one of yogyakarta’s districts. In Sleman, we can find fertile agriculture land as well as in Bantul middle area. On Yogyakarta east side, Gunung Kidul is a karst area with many underground rivers.

This cultivar is only known in villages area or middle economic-level people. When people have better economic condition, they choose better cultivar which is more easily found and have better appearance such as Cavendish banana.
In many supermarket, we can easily find cavendish every time, and more of that, it also has stable price and nice appearance, etc.
Banana plantain like Ambon kuning is easily defected after it’s ripe. Ambon kuning is also climateric fruit which is easily defected by hot stimulation and enzym. That’s why we can not easily find ambon kuning in supermarket.

However Ambon kuning banana can be found in traditional market. For now, the price of ambon kuning is more expensive when it’s near fasting month or summer. The price becomes stable when it comes to rainy season. In the summer, there is a lack of raindrops in banana plantation that also causes lack of banana production, and it leads to more expensive price of the product.