Maersk: Yes, We have Filipino bananas

Maersk: Yes, We have Filipino bananas    Maersk Line said it has developed refrigerated container technology that “opens up new markets for faraway exporters, and provides consumers all over the world with fresh fruit products.”
   At the end of April, a Maersk Line container vessel carrying a trial shipment of several containers of bananas from Davao, Philippines, arrived in Rotterdam, Netherlands, after a 34-day voyage.
   “Imported bananas are nothing out of the ordinary in Europe, but arriving from a destination as far as the Philippines is extraordinary,” Maersk said. The company added it has used the equipment with bananas from Ecuador.
   Maersk said it was able to overcome the transit time through use of controlled atmosphere technology in its “StarCare” reefer equipment that it said would keep bananas fresh for up to 50 days. Those are specialized reefer containers with a passive controlled atmosphere system “in which the fruit itself creates the desired environment.” Through natural respiration from the fruit, oxygen levels are reduced and carbon dioxide increases, contributing to lower respiration by the fruit and suppressing the release of ethylene (which causes fruit to ripen) and mold.
   Optimal gas levels are controlled in the container through the use of sensors, gas permeable membranes, and fresh air intake. If carbon dioxide levels exceed their optimal threshold, the membrane will be activated and start to permeate carbon dioxide away from the cargo space. If oxygen levels drop below the set point, the fresh air intake will automatically open up, to let in ambient air.
   “Maersk Line can now offer access to almost any market place globally through the use of StarCare, in affordable shipment sizes down to 20 pallets; subsequently Maersk Line is being an active and innovative part of creating new opportunities for our clients in the single largest perishable commodity segment in the world, the banana,' said Kim Aksel Kristensen, director at Maersk’s reefer department.
   James Wiley, author of the book The Banana: Empires, Trade Wars and Globalization, told American Shipper that while he was not a technology expert, the impact of the new development in Europe would be dependent on several factors including the cost of transport from the Far East compared to Central America or Colombia and Ecuador.
   “Bananas are a relatively cheap fruit for consumers, so even a relatively small increase in transport costs could render Filipino bananas uncompetitive in Europe,” he said.
   There are exporters to the EU that “already have relationships with ripening facilities and retail chains in Europe. Some of these relationships are of relatively longstanding and could prove difficult to break into, as is the case with Caribbean exporters who would like to export bananas to the USA, whose market is tied up by the big three U.S.-based multinational corporations,” Wiley said.
   On the other hand, he said factors that could make Filipino exports to Europe attractive include lower labor costs and that since trade preferences ended in 2006, new entrants “don’t have to fight quotas, as result of the long and complex banana case in the World Trade Organization that was the primary subject of my book.”
   The ability to transport bananas reliably and affordably for up to 45 days translates into a world of new markets for exporters in several countries.
   Maersk said the new containers give shippers the ability to move small volumes so that, for example, “exporters in Ecuador can now ship to the Middle East, Japan, China, Russia and the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and New Zealand. Costa Rican exporters now have access to valuable markets in Russia and the East Coast of South America. And banana producers in the Philippines are now able to export their produce to the Middle East, while African exporters can now ship to the Mediterranean Sea and to Northern Europe.”
   Maersk said the StarCare containers can also be used for other fruit such as avocados. ' Chris Dupin