When we left Aitutaki we were given much fruit, including two whole stalks of bananas. This island used to export bananas to New Zealand but that stopped abruptly when New Zealand politicians decided to import bananas from South America instead. NZ does supply "foreign aid" to the Cook Islands government but little of that is obvious on Aitutaki. This is very annoying to the local people who have no export market for their crop and cannot earn much money. Their old banana plantations are not maintained and are reverting to bush.