"Their quality is most important," says Jan Simons about the handling of bananas. He's the Operations Manager at EuroFruitPorts. This is a Belgian logistics service provider. It’s a joint venture between Euroports and Compagnie Fruitière. Every week they handle a shipment of bananas. These come mostly from Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and Ghana. Customers from across Europe buy these bananas. But they mostly go to France and Eastern Europe.
"When handling bananas, quality is the main focus." But speed, efficiency, and flexibility also play an essential role, as does damage control. Pallets or boxes of banana boxes could be damaged during transit. "They're checked upon arrival in the warehouse. If possible, pallets and boxes are repaired or, if necessary, replaced." There's also always a 'donor pallet' of bananas available. If needs be, this replaces a box of bananas that needs to be sent out.
To ensure quality during storage - usually for a day or two, sometimes up to a week - a team of four quality assurance staff is on hand. They monitor the bananas continuously. Jan says there are few quality issues. Buyers monitor their bananas very closely. EuroFruitPorts also takes care of the ships' return cargo to West Africa. This involves export products like not only onions. But also European-made banana boxes and second-hand cars.
Organic trade is booming
Banana volumes coming in from West Africa are increasing slightly. However, those from Central and South America - from countries like Ecuador and the Dominican Republic - are climbing rapidly. And these are mainly organic bananas. "In recent years, the organic banana supply has doubled every year. We started with around 2,000 tons annually about seven years ago. We now do about 60,000 tons a year. The organic trade is booming," explains Jan.
Traceability is becoming increasingly important. EuroFruitPorts uses barcodes on the packaging. That enables full traceability all the way from the plantation.
Expansion
This logistics service provider has a 13,500m² cold store and an 8,100m² dry storage facility. That has room for 6,000 refrigerated pallets. The cold store is divided into several compartments to allow for different temperature regimes. Bananas account for some 90% of all their products and are kept at 13.5°C. The remaining ten percent are pineapples, cherry tomatoes, and mangoes from West Africa.
These are shipped along with the bananas. These goods are stored at 8°C. "We get around 20 containers of pineapples a week annually. And we carry cherry tomatoes and mangoes when they're in season." The company intends to expand towards seasonal products. "Depending on which opportunities arise, we'll also start trading in other goods. We hope to expand this in the future. We're constantly looking ahead to see if there are chances to expand trade," concludes Jan.
Jan Simons
[email protected]
Eurofruitports NV
Land van Waaslaan 5
Kallo - Belgium
T +3232049300
www.euroports.com