A 5 cent sheet of plastic could be the key to allow small Latin American banana growers to access one of the most demanding markets on Earth.
Hundreds of small Dominican producers are being trained by FAO in a technique which allows the fruit to be protected from damage. The mechanism, known as "Nun's neck", consists of a light polyurethane sheet placed around each hand of bananas, as Díaz explained to BBC World.
"Each bunch has a cluster, and each cluster has an average of nine banana hands. From those, the lower one is not productive for exports, so it is discarded. The Nun's Neck is placed around the six most important hands to separate them from one another."
The technique has been used for years in the Dominican Republic by larger producers, as well as in Costa Rica and Ecuador. FAO is trying to make it available for the great majority of growers.
"70% of the producers here are very small, with less than three hectares. With FAO's help we distribute 700,000 Nun's necks to more than 700 producers. We know that it is an effective technique," Díaz pointed out.
It is estimated that 30% of the fruit from smaller growers may be rejected for various reasons, according to Díaz, and one of them is a bad handling of the clusters.
"With Nun's necks the rejection rates are reduced by between 20 and 30%," he explained.
Source: BBC
Source: BBC