Among many commercial varieties of banana, Nendran is very unique as it is the only variety that is consumed in many forms and at different stages of ripening. It is a popular variety of Kerala and Tamil Nadu with a share of 50 per cent in these states and is sold locally. Fruit is relatively longer and has a thicker skin with a distinct neck.
Efforts for boosting the Agricultural Exports started during 2014-15 when K.R.Jyothilal, an IAS officer was Secretary (Agriculture) in Kerala. When D.K.Singh, another IAS officer took over as the Agricultural Production Commissioner, he looked at the possibility of exporting Nendran to countries with Indian diaspora, especially in the context of State Agriculture Export Strategy announced by Kerala Government in 2019. However, there were a large number of issues that were required to be addressed for considering such export. One of these constraints was the high cost of transportation by air. Discussions revealed that transportation by sea would be 1/7th of the cost incurred by air. However, transportation by sea posed another challenge and this related to the longer period required for shipment to EU and North American countries. On account of their perishable nature, agricultural products cannot survive long distance container transport.
Despite the challenges relating to transportation by sea, it was decided to promote Nendran Banana. In consultation with National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB), Trichy it was decided to conduct some research work on the development of a protocol for the long-distance shipment (30-35 days) of Nendran Banana to Europe. Financial assistance for the project was obtained under the RKVY scheme of the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council, Keralam (VFPCK) was entrusted to execute the project. The project was designed in a PPP mode with the participation of multiple organisations like Department of Agriculture, Agri (PPM Cell), VFPCK, NRCB, Krishna Traders, Trace X and others. Under close monitoring and guidance of the current Agricultural Production Commissioner, Ishita Roy, the first consignment was shipped on 08.03.2021 from Kochi port. It reached London Gateway port on 09.04.2021 after sailing for 32 days.
The project enabled evolution of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) relating to pre and post-harvest handling and cultivation practices. As a part of the entire exercise, 15 farmers were selected after field visit by NRCB scientists. Frequent visits to the farms by the officials and documentation of inputs used was ensured. Integrated nutrient management, pest and disease management practices etc. were conducted for getting good quality fruits.
A well designed and administered traceability system was integrated in the value chain. A Bangalore-based agri start-up provided food safety and supply chain traceability software as a service platform through a mobile application. The barcode provided in the clusters / cartons had the entire value chain data captured. The consumer could provide feed-back after scanning the barcode.
Selected fields were visited every week during bunch emergence/flowering stage and tying of bunches that flowered simultaneously with same color ribbons. Repeating the same, during the following weeks and tying with different color ribbons every week for easy identification/harvest of bunches of same maturity.
Harvesting was done on March 2nd 2021 ensuring 80-85 % maturity.
Harvested banana was transported to APEDA Certified Packhouse of VAFPCL at Nadukkara. Here, pack house protocol that included washing, grading and fungicide treatment was followed. To delay ripening, bananas were packaged in vacuum. It was then palletized and kept in cold storage for 12 hrs to bring down the temperature to 13.5 degree Celsius ensuring 80-85 % RH. Reefer containers were used to maintain the temperature and humidity conditions while transporting to the port. After port clearances, the consignment was loaded to ship that sailed on 8th March 2021. The ship reached London Gateway Port on April 9th 2021. On arrival, bananas were still green without any deterioration in appearance and quality
The feed-back received about the bananas was overwhelming. The demand for Nendran is building up in UK markets. The enquiries from other European countries as well as Middle east countries have been extremely encouraging.
There were a few other operational challenges that had to overcome to be overcome. Farmers had various apprehensions about assured income from exports. They had to harvest bananas a bit early as compared to their usual practice for domestic market. Early harvest reduced the weight of the bunches that impacted their income. Further, for export, the ‘hands’ needed to be uniform and hence the first and last ‘hands’ in a bunch had to be discarded and domestic market need to be sought for selling the same. The ‘hands’ had also to be de-handed in the field itself and the bunch covering removed carefully. The entire operation had to be carried out carefully on flat surface that entailed additional labor charges. During the initial trials the farmers could be convinced but this would be a challenge as the venture is scaled
The other set of challenges centred around selling the rejected bananas at the time of packhouse operations which was also good quality for domestic market but discarded due to packing specification of 5 bananas per hand. VFPCK could sell it through the VFPMC and Thalir network operated by VFPCK. In future too it would entail coordination with a number of agencies.
The temperature (below freezing point) in London was another challenge. This delayed the ripening. However, with the support of NRCB Trichy and the technical experts in London and by adjusting temperature in ethylene chamber and exposure timing, ripening was triggered. It yielded the desired result.
The success of the project will pay the way for new market prospects by integrating Kerala to the global value chain and thereby ensuring farmers better and consistent price. The reduced logistics cost shall benefit the producers as well as consumers.
Remarkable feature of this project was the support from the Agricultural Minister, Sri. V.S. Sunil Kumar. Ishita Roy and her team have demonstrated that if there is a vision, a well-defined strategy, meticulous planning and commitment to execute, it can be made to happen by taking all the stake holders, including the politicians, into confidence and by conveying a value proposition.
Anil Swarup has served as the head of the Project Monitoring Group, which is currently under the Prime Minister’s Offic. He has also served as Secretary, Ministry of Coal and Secretary, Ministry of School Education.
