It would be difficult to find a European household without a bunch of bananas sitting in the fruit basket. In 2024 alone, Europe consumed 8.43 million metric tons of bananas – a testament to just how indispensable this tropical fruit has become across the continent.
While there are differences in just how banana-mad each country is – with the Netherlands topping the charts at 21 kilos per person per year, Portugal following with 17.5 kilos, and the UK and Germany staying at 12 and 11 kilos respectively, there is no doubt that bananas are a staple in European diets.
And let’s not forget the endless debates - is a banana best enjoyed still almost green and firm, or when it’s starting to show those first brown spots?
Even though bananas are widely enjoyed and readily accessible, the path they take to reach consumers’ tables is not always so simple.
An industry ripe for change
Traditionally, bananas are picked while green in Latin America – with Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia, and Costa Rica as the top suppliers – and shipped in refrigerated containers to Europe and other destinations. The bananas in this state known as “green and unripened” are not yet ready for consumers. Therefore, upon arrival, they are moved into specialised ripening chambers, where temperature and other conditions are carefully controlled to turn them supermarket yellow.
This ripening process, while effective in extending the fruit’s shelf life and allowing the prolonged transportation, comes with downsides. The three to five days that bananas need to spend in ripening chambers at destination add days of delay, consume considerable energy, require dedicated warehouse space, and create additional transport movements to and from ripening facilities.
As anyone who’s ever waited for a banana to hit that perfect sweet spot knows, timing is everything – and those extra days can make all the difference when it comes to delivering a fresher product with maximum remaining shelf life to supermarket shelves.
Enter StarRipe™: Controlled ripening on the move
This is where Maersk’s new StarRipe™ solution flips the traditional model on its head. Instead of waiting until arrival to ripen bananas, StarRipe™ ripens them in transit, directly inside the reefer container as they sail towards their final destination.
The StarRipe™ technology allows our customers to select the exact fruit colour and degree of ripeness they want – from firm green to ready-to-eat yellow. The specific parameters, such as ‘Colour Stage’ and 'Ripening Completion Date Local’ are defined together with ‘Temperature’, ‘Oxygen’ and ‘Carbon Dioxide’ during the booking process.
We have been ripening bananas on the move for some time now, so it is no longer a question of whether it works – now it is about sitting together with our customers and finding how this technology best fits into their processes and their supply chain.
With the ripening process taking between six and eight days, it can be engaged at any time during the ocean leg, at the terminal, or during final delivery, before opening the container.
The benefits of in-transit ripening aren’t just about convenience. The solution reduces ripening-related energy consumption and adds flexibility and capacity for the ripening. Gentle ripening on the move also means that bananas arrive retail-ready with less handling and shorter lead times from picking to consumption, resulting in better freshness and longer shelf life – two critical factors for consumer satisfaction and minimising food waste.
Find out more about what benefits StarRipe™ can have for your supply chain.
Ripening bananas on the move not only ensures a smoother, faster supply chain, but also allows our customers to deliver fresher and better-quality products to end consumers.
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