I know theres the whole banana republic thing, but i just cant wrap my head around the infrastructure and scale it takes to provide a banana from ecuador being cheaper than a potato from my own state

Maybe the other goods you mention have more demand? For example, here quinoa used to be extremely cheap. Now, because you gringos and yuros buy that shit is extremely expensive even by buying it here near the place where it grows.

two words: child labor

Banan is a plant that is ultra easy to harvest. The tree basically presents all of his fruit ready for the taking and ready to transport. Also banan is protected well naturally by the thick peel. Apples must be picked or you have to use elaborate machinery to shake the tree. And even then an apple tree will have way less fruit than banan. A banan tree can produce lots and lots of banan due the warmer and sunnier climates in which it grows contrary to the cold and also dark north.

Lastly, banan can be transport for a long time. You transport it green and at the destination you put them in ethylene gas which forces the ripening process. So you can easily transport them in slow freighters.

Banan might be the optimal fruit to feed humans all around the world cheaply and efficiently.

bananas are based

I wonder if there was always a special relationshit between our ancestors and bananas or if this is just a recent phenomena to feed monkey with our industrialized version of bananas because they are super cheap.

I remember reading about this monkeys bananas relationship in some 19th century fiction, I don't think they were cheap back then so it's probably genuine

potato farmers are paid fairly

banana farmers aren't

capitalism wins against

Based and enlightening

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-most-interesting-fruit-in-the-world-ep-375/