Growing Bananas
Bananas grow in the tropics, where the sun and rain they need to fully develop are found in abundance for most of the year. Bananas grow from a root or rhizome. A fully-grown plant rises to a height of eight to ten feet.
Bananas are a perfect cash crop. They grow all year round following an initial harvest cycle, which takes about thirty-nine weeks. At any one time, banana plants will grow a number of suckers, each of which can bear fruit. However, only one of these is allowed to grow to its full size, the rest being pruned to ensure maximum growth and vigour for the remaining plant. This process continues over several years before, eventually, replanting the field becomes necessary.
The bananas begin life on the stem growing downwards before they eventually turn and grow upwards towards the sun. Their flower ends are removed so that they do not attract insects - this is known as "de-flowering". The bud that grows at the bottom of each bunch is also removed. During de-flowering, a plastic sleeve is placed over the bunch to protect it from the wind and to encourage growth.
As the bananas grow in size, the plants need to be supported to prevent them breaking or falling over, as a fully-grown bunch can weigh eighty pounds or more.
Bananas do not all grow to a uniform size. At the bottom of each bunch you will find smaller bananas, which represent 10% to 20% of the total. These small bananas are extremely popular, particularly with families with school-age children, as they are the perfect size for lunch boxes!
Bananas are harvested green at a predetermined stage of maturity, as they continue to ripen after being cut down from the stem. Great care needs to be taken when bananas are harvested to prevent them from being bumped and bruised, as this will affect the quality of the fruit.
At harvesting time the hands of bananas are cut away from the main bunch, and each hand is segmented into individual clusters of five or six bananas. This gives an attractive presentation on the retail shelf. Each cluster of green bananas is carefully packed into a lined tray for protection in transit to the packing station. There they are washed, treated and labelled, ready for boxing for their onward journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the UK.
The boxes are carefully weighed and identified with country of origin, grower farm reference number and other details to meet EU import regulations. This ensures complete traceability from retailer shelf back to individual grower and farm.
All the bananas from the Windwards are carried by a fleet of specially designed refrigerated (reefer) ships. Each ship carries the fruit in strict temperature controlled conditions and at the commencement of the ten-day voyage, fruit temperature is lowered in the first two days to a minimum of 56oF or 13.30oC.
This lowers the respiration rate of the fruit, like hibernation, and helps to guarantee freshness and improve shelf life. When the ship arrives in Portsmouth, the boxes of bananas are carefully unloaded and moved to ripening centres around the UK on a fleet of temperature-controlled lorries.
At these centres, the bananas are firstly assessed for general condition and then placed in ripening rooms. Here they are ripened to the exact green or yellow colour shade specifications required by the retail customer. This ripening process usually takes about five days. Specifying the required stage of ripeness varies according to different retailers, who in turn act upon the demands of their customers, the shoppers.
At every stage in the supply chain, from farmer to retail shelf, the bananas are handled as little and as carefully as possible. This is to prevent bruising, which makes the bananas less attractive to the shopper and final consumer.