Polish company Citronex has its sights set on expansion and is looking at reaching 300 ripening rooms by January 2020. The company’s main import volume comes from Ecuador but they also import from Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, with their total volumes reaching almost 290,000 boxes every week.
Managing director Marek Szulc says: “We have our own plantations in Ecuador which are Rainforest Certified. We also have a collaboration with a grower in Colombia which has been ongoing for 25 years. We use banana ripening rooms because when the bananas are ripened closer to the customers, we have more control over the quality of the product that we deliver. Our ripening rooms utilize the very unique ‘penthouse system.’ This system is more expensive than the average ripening systems, but it ensures that the bananas are all ripened at the same pace, and when they are done all bananas have equal color and temperature.”
The company strives to work as closely as possible with the final customers: the supermarket chains. Marek explains: “Some retailers try to directly source their bananas, but they are presented with many issues when doing so. Our company has a lot of experience and so we are able to overcome these issues. When we supply the retailers, we are responsible for the quality of the supply and the retailers don’t have to concern themselves with the issues that come along with importing. We take on all eventual problems and risks.”
While quality is something that everyone strives for, Marek understands that perfection it isn’t always attainable. He says: “We work with fresh fruits and some problems are normal in this business. The way our company works is that we always take full responsibility on our side.
The supermarkets aren’t interested in solving the problems related to bad weather in the originating countries, the shipment delays, shortages, etc. This means that it falls onto our company, and companies like us, to either fix or circumvent these issues. Our customers need to receive their ripened bananas on time, with good colors, temperatures, and quality. If there is a problem with the delivery we will work to replace the truck within a couple of hours. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen very often – so far for 2019 we have a quality service level of over 99%.”
In 2017, the company rebranded themselves, using both the color and the phrase “yellow” on all their boxes and in their marketing for easy recognition. They are expanding their number of ripening rooms in order to be able to serve more customers with higher quality bananas.
“Last January, we established another ripening plant in Timisoara, in Romania. Thanks to this plant, our company because the largest banana company in the Romania. Right now we have another ripening room being constructed on a 4,000 square meter plot of land in Bucharest. This one should be ready in January of 2020, and will ensure that Citronex’s daughter company, Yellow Fresh, will double its capacity. When the project is finished, our ripening rooms with have a capacity of 7432 pallets, which is the biggest in Europe,” Marek concludes.
The company has Rainforest Certification as well as Global Gap certification for their banana production, and in 2019 they received IFS system certification.
For more information: 
Marek Szulc
Citronex
Tel: +48 757721933
Email: marek.szulc@citronex.pl
www.citronex.pl