Most bananas come from Latin America, but every week, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and Ghana also send this fruit to Europe. "We bring mainly palletized bananas from West Africa from the port to our terminal," says Jan Simons, operations supervisor at Eurofruitports in Antwerp, Belgium. "We receive around 7,000 tons of Cavendish bananas weekly, mostly from Cameroon, but also from the Ivory Coast and Ghana."
Jan Simons
"The fruit takes ten days to reach Belgium on our customer Compagnie Fruitière's own conventional refrigerated ships, with a stopover in Portsmouth, UK. Containers from Latin America also arrive every week via MSC, Hapag-Lloyd, and CMA CGM. That's from all possible countries of origin, from Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia to the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Guatemala," Jan explains.
2024 was a top banana year
Eurofruitports further transports the West African bananas to France, Germany, and Eastern Europe. "For Compagnie Fruitière, a French company, Antwerp is its most important port. The volumes keep growing, with 2024 even being a top year. West African bananas' quality is improving and becoming increasingly competitive."
Besides bananas, Eurofruitports also trades in cherry tomatoes from Senegal (December-April) and mangoes from Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso (April-July). "Mangoes have plenty of growth potential on the European market," Jan points out.
Logistical chains around Antwerp
Upon arrival at this Belgian company, products are extensively checked, supported by an advanced warehouse management system for full traceability. Eurofruitports and Kloosterboer en Lineage dominate the North Sea banana transshipment. According to Jan, the logistics chain around Antwerp offers a slight competitive advantage over Vlissingen in the Netherlands.
Challenges
Two considerable challenges remain: drug smuggling and rising labor costs. "Even with a detour via West Africa, drugs from South America sometimes manage to enter European ports. We work closely with the federal police. The containers are emptied, and if they contain drugs, they are usually found here – which has happened before – and not at the client's warehouse. Our buyers greatly appreciate that."
"Staff shortages, though, are possibly the biggest threat to companies in Antwerp. In Belgium, when the pivot index is exceeded during automatic wage indexing, it hinders maintaining global competitiveness," says Simons. 'It hampers keeping costs as low as possible for customers. An efficiency drive is perhaps called for. I also feel we were more efficient some 20 years ago than now. We'll work on that because we obviously intend to continue growing as a company."
That could well be in organic produce. "Over the past ten years, the volume of organic bananas has almost quadrupled. They don't just come from Peru. Ghana and the Ivory Coast are making progress in that segment," Jan concludes.
For more information:
Eurofruitports NV
Tel: +32 320 49 300
contact@euroports.com
www.eurofruitports.com