The History of Banana Transports

Within 14-20 days from the tree to the greengrocer

Today, everyone is able to buy bananas for a small amount of money at a grocer or a supermarket. But that wasn't always so easy. During the first half of the 19th century bananas were nearly unknown in Western Europe and also in North America. Because of it's rapid ripening process, it was impossible to transport bananas over a long distance. At that time there was neither a fast service from the plantations to the harbours nor reefers (refrigerator ships) were at disposal for the transport over the sea.

In the beginning of the 19th century tropical fruits are shipped on the deck of sailing-vessels, because of the necessary ventilation. At convenient seasons it was possible to use the fast clippers to ship citrus fruits and - sometimes - also bananas. Since the optimal temperature for shipping bananas is 13.2°C, the loss by a premature ripening and damaging by salted water was extremely high.
 

Another important requirement was a fast overland transport to the harbour, which must not take longer than 36 hours. This was possible, as in 1870 the first railroad tracks were build from the plantations through the woods to the harbours. Through the construction of freighters with thermal isolated and refrigerator-cooled shipholds - the predecessors of the present reefers - for the first time it was possible to ship large amounts of bananas. So, in 1882, starts the first scheduled shipping of bananas from the Canary Islands to Great-Britain. But until the turn to the 20th century, citrus fruits and bananas were mostly shipped with fruit-ships in non-cooled and only ventilated holds.

The further development of the cargo vessels was a crucial requirement for the worldwide trading of bananas. 1901 starts the regular shipping of bananas in refrigerated shipholds between Central America and the harbours of Great-Britain. 1903 the VENUS of the United Fruit Company was launched. It was the first ship, which was especially build for the transport of bananas and ring in the age of the reefers. While the VENUS still had the typical black hull of this period, since 1907 the reefers were painted with white colour to reflect the tropical sunlight and allow banana temperatures to be more easily maintained. As the United Fruit Company fleet of big, fast, white-painted reefer vessels grew, they became well known as the "Great White Fleet". Today, the United Fruit Company is known as Chiquita Brands International.

Interrupted by two world wars, the mechanical refrigeration of shipholds was further developed and more and more ships were equipped with them. But the imported exotic fruits were for many decades so expensive, that the majority of people was not able to afford them. First, after 1950, because of large scale cultivation and falling of shipping costs, bananas became a natural food for the people in Western Europe.
For a long time the railroads were the most important transportation for bananas on their trip to the coast. Today in Central and South America, thousands of cardboard boxes with bananas will be transported daily from the packing stations to the harbour by railway or, if regular roads are available, by modern refrigerator vans within 24 hours. There they were loaded in modern and fast reefers to provide that bananas will be always available all over the word.
These modern reefers have only little in common with the early bananaboats. With their efficient refrigerators they are able to keep the bananas at exactly 13.2°C in a state of rest, where the ripening is nearly stopped.

The increasing use of containers leds to the development of the first refrigerated container ships in 1973, with the advantage of a quicker load and unload. The containers could be directly reloaded on trucks. These trucks transports the bananas to the ripening plants, where they arrive in dark green colour. In a ripening chamber they will getting "sales-ripe" within 4-8 days at a temperature between 14.5 and 18°C advanced by adding ethylene gas to the atmosphere. Normally this is a "medium ripeness", that means, bananas are delivered - between 14 to 20 days after harvesting - in a yellow-green condition to the grocer.