The road travelled by a banana before it reaches a consumer, is set in stone. After transport, a storage period follows, and then a ripening chamber, before being transported to shop shelves. Imagine that supply chain being shorter, and that a link could be removed from it. Aad Gouw from AGF Adviesbureau is working on a concept in China that would result in a considerably shorter supply chain.
“Storing bananas is expensive. Bananas are one of the fruits with the longest storage time, and that is expensive,” Aad states. Because of the banana’s long road from plantation to consumer, the energy label won’t be positive for bananas. “Nobody talks about it, but the banana’s food-print isn’t good, because it devours energy.” Aad wouldn’t be surprised if products were to get an obligatory food-print label in future. “In the past, there were plans to tax energy use. In the end, those plans fell through, but it wouldn’t have had a good result for bananas.”
In Europe, the banana sector is stable, but Aad expects shifts will take place. The low banana prices are untenable. “The only reason this is possible, is scaling-up, which reduces costs,” he says. However, he expects that under influence of the higher transport costs this trend will turn round, and that ripening units will be located nearer the distribution centre and supermarkets again.
The ripening process for bananas has been crystallised out over the past decades. “More attention is paid to the ripening of exotics. That’s important,” Aad continues. “It has been denied for a long time, and ripening is still in its infancy, but ripeness is very important. More should be done for it. They are valuable products, but nobody really knows when a product has been properly ripened.” He mentions mangoes as an example, which, in his experience, regularly get sold when they’re still brown on the inside. “That results in less trust from consumers. This staggers higher returns, because exotics are expensive. India can’t wait to supply more mangoes, but we have to pay attention to ripening.”
Unreclaimed China
While the supply chain is riveted together in Europe, there’s still room to find new ways to bring ripe bananas to consumers in China. “We want to set up a different supply chain in China,” Aad says. Considering the country is still relatively unreclaimed for the import of bananas, there are still opportunities to start completely from scratch. The European ways of creating a supply chain are being examined. Aad chooses a completely different approach.
For some years now, he has had the idea to replace the stationary ripening facility from the supply chain with mobile ripening chambers. The technique exists, and is already being used on a small scale in the US. “The bananas will always continue to arrive on land in various ports, but we can look into ripening the bananas during transport.” The necessary technology is available. Through computer control, the ripening process can be started during transport, and the bananas can then be delivered in various stages of ripening. “When the bananas arrive in the port, the importer knows who the bananas have been sold to. The bananas could be supplied in various ripening stages depending on customer.”
Better quality imported bananas
Aad also has his own opinion about the ripeness of the banana, because why should the bananas all be on the shelves with the same level of ripeness? Why wouldn’t there also be room for bananas in varying stages of ripeness? He is trying to break open the Chinese market and getting these techniques off the ground.
Although China is one of the largest importers of bananas, Aad focuses completely on banana producers. That is a relatively new category. “The traditional market is just as locked in patterns. Small growers go to the market with their bananas together. It’s difficult to change that process.” The importers and exporters cooperate quicker, because they don’t have supporters. “The import bananas are better quality, and they receive a better treatment. Chinese customers aren’t crazy, and they know what quality is, so they often choose imported bananas.”
“The Chinese are very developed,” Aad continues. “Of course, the state has even more influence than in Europe, but China is a superpower, and the West just has to accept that.” That dominant position of the state, however, also has an advantage. If people can be convinced, the market soon follows. People in China also see the importance of energy saving. The Chinese also know that this will play a part in future.
New wholesaler’s market in Shanghai
To get the entire project off the ground, just a few more steps have to be taken. Although Aad has had the plan for years, it hasn’t yet progressed beyond the drawing board. That has a number of causes, one of which is that there isn’t yet a constant import flow of banana, as there is in Europe.
A new fruit and vegetable market is being built in Shanghai, and this can be compared to Rungis in Paris, France. Aad hopes to be able to get companies there interested in his concept. He is trying to gain a foothold within this project with a Chinese partner. “They are starting completely from scratch, so there’s room to start a discussion.”
More information:
AGF Adviesbureau
Aad Gouw