Singapore-registered agritech consultancy, Bloom Agro Pte Ltd has just completed a successful tour of major banana producers in Ecuador, Colombia, and Costa Rica.
Bloom Agro's filtration and chemical injection system.
Originally founded in 2013 by agricultural irrigation specialists, Bloom Agro has a long history of irrigation and agronomic consultancy with banana clients in the Philippines, and offers two unique systems for the world's Cavendish banana producers:
- Cost-effective water treatment for treating surface water for irrigation (proven to remove 100% of fusarium spores from water); and
- Water treatment and recycling systems for banana (and other crop) post-harvest cleaning processes.
Jonathan Harvey, who is in charge of business development at Bloom Agro, says: “Through working closely with Cavendish banana producers in the Philippines, many of whom had been afflicted by severely damaging outbreaks of Fusarium Foc-TR4, we witnessed first-hand that banana producers had to make a decision regarding irrigation in the face of fusarium contamination of the water source: to continue irrigating with the risk of spreading the disease across the plantation, stop irrigating to limit the risk of contamination spread (which comes with significantly reduced yields), or drill deep wells (which is both costly in terms of investment, and operating costs, with limited research regarding whether fusarium spores can be found in underground water sources).”
Bloom's system began its development through cooperation with the laboratories of Unifrutti and Dole to analyze which chemicals could be used to eliminate fusarium spores in water, what concentration, and how much "contact time" was required between the chemicals and the contaminated water to ensure elimination of 100% of the spores. Harvey would like to give a special thanks to Lothar Trueggelman, ex-head of R&D for Unifrutti in the Philippines.
Bloom's tour of important markets in Central and South America was organized in conjunction with Rahan Meristem, with whom Bloom are partnering to enter new markets.
During the Latin American tour, Bloom had the opportunity to meet with regionally important clients including AGROBAN, Fyffes, Dole, Fresh Del Monte, ReyBanPac, ASBAMA, Tecbaco, and Corbana.
The company, whose major clients to date are in the Philippines and include Unifrutti, Dole Asia, Fresh Del Monte Philippines, and UGP, has installed around 40 water treatment systems for irrigation in the Philippines, covering and protecting around 10,000 hectares of Cavendish bananas from the spread of fusarium Foc-TR4 through surface water used for irrigation.
Bloom's water treatment and recycling systems are newly launching in the market following extensive research and product testing. The systems, developed based on client needs in the Philippines, achieve a significant separation of latex from the post-harvest banana cleaning process, treat and recycle 100% of the water in the washing basins.
With the alliance with Rahan Meristem, Bloom Agro will be providing its solutions to clients in the region and intends to have dedicated teams to ensure ongoing maintenance and dedicated customer service.
For more information: 
Jonathan Harvey
Bloom Agro
Email: Jonathan@bloom-argo.com
www.bloom-agro.com