One a Day Banana Pack an option for European retail?

The ‘One a Day Banana Pack’ from Korea went viral on social media last week. A feast for the eye, but could it also be realised in European retail? We asked Hans Maagendans of the independent banana ripening plant Banafood Services from Straelen in Germany.

“Anything’s possible in principle,” Hans starts. Yet he also sees a downside to packing bananas in six different stages of maturity. “First of all, it would increase costs. They work with similar concepts in the UK, such as the ‘weekend pack.’ In the Netherlands, retailers sometimes have three to five different varieties of bananas on their shelves, but this also causes more losses.”

“A bag of ready-to-eat bananas with two bananas of colour 4.5, two bananas of colour 3, and two bananas of colour 2.5 might seem ideal as a convenience product, but the last colour (2.5) still has so much moisture it would cause a lot of dehydration, affecting flavour,” Hans says. “That’s why we work according to the principle that we supply fresh bananas with the right colour to DCs every day, in summer colour 3/3.5, and in winter colour 4. Of course there will always be people who prefer a greener banana, but a well-ripened banana of colour 3.5/4 can easily be kept for a few days. I wonder whether it’s a good idea to have two colours in shops.”