How To Handle Bananas

THE following article on the handling of bananas, by Mr. M. W. von Bernewitz, appeared recently in the “Sydney Morning Herald."

It is not surprising that the method of handling bananas for the Australian mar ket stirred Mr. von Bernewitz to protest.

The fruit is shockingly treated; and, as it finally reaches the consumer in the big cities, it is unattractive and flavourless.

The attempt to introduce Fiji bananas to the Australian market has been more or less murdered by cunning Australian taxation. The tariff barrier was partly removed, following the Ottawa Agreement; but the Fiji importers met a full barrage of sales tax, primage, income tax, etc., and their profits just faded away. In conse quence the Australian people, though they prefer Islands bananas, are still com pelled to eat the unpleasant product of Northern New South Wales.

AFTER noting loose bananas in all stages of ripeness in many fruit shop windows, I was surprised recently to see “hands” of sugar bananas displayed.

This reminded me of the practice in Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand of hand ling bananas cut from the stalk, instead of handling the whole bunch. Why is this done? Why go to the labour and expense of cutting each banana or “finger” off the stalk and hand, packing them in crates, which are not cheap, and unpacking, plac ing, and ripening them in shop windows?

Surely this is an expensive system?

Besides, shop windows are hardly the place for ripening bananas. I have yet to buy bananas that have that soft feel and mel low flavour, after passing through the process mentioned.

I have questioned several persons re garding the matter, but their answers are

not convincing. One answer is that the bananas are graded by this means; but cannot this be done by cutting them off the stalk in a shop as required? Another answer is that bunches cannot be handled as such, there being wastage through breakage of fruit. Let me tell how bana nas are handled in the United States, up to 30 million bunches in a good year.

Bananas consumed in the United States come from Hawaii, West Indies, and Cen tral America. The first named yields but a fraction of the last. I travelled on one steamer that had 5000 Hawaiian bunches on deck. They were wrapped in rice straw, and leaves of the banana tree.

The United Fruit Company, whose head quarters are at Boston, Massachusetts, and whose banana ramifications include Cen tral America, West Indies, United States, England, and Europe; refrigerator ships; railways, and accessories, handled 230 million bunches during a period of 10 years. From the banana plantation to the consumer the fruit is kept on the stalk.

Bunches, always cut green, are carried from the trees to tramways on the shoul ders of natives or on mule-back, then to railways on flat cars, the bananas lying on and covered with leaves. Transfer is next made to box-cars, the bunches packed with leaves. When trains arrive at the steam ers lying at Central American and West Indies ports, they are loaded either by short conveyors operating between the trains and ships, or by hand. In the holds experienced labourers stow each size of bunch separately, and on the butt of the stalk in tiers. Here, ventilation and atten tion to temperature is necessary.

On arrival at the United States, three southern ports are equipped with unload ing machines, which are really canvas ele

vators. At eastern ports all unloading is done by hand. The bananas are placed in railroad cars, and distributed over the country. During each of these movements the fruit is carefully inspected. No fruit is dumped or destroyed unless it is unfit to eat.

On arrival at certain interior distribution points, the banana agent trucks the bunches on hay or straw to the ripening rooms. The bunches are hung from ceil ing hooks by the opposite end to which they grow, which also is the way they are hung in shops, the butt downward. Ven tilation and temperature must be attended to in the ripening rooms. Some banana agents use ethylene oxide gas to hasten the process of ripening. Finally, the bana nas are ready for the retail trade. So, from the plantation to the shop the bunch has been handled intact, with perhaps one or two bananas broken off, by native and by common labour.

With regard to the ripening process, this is a vital phenomenon resulting from the changes taking place within the cells of the banana—the starch in the green fruit is gradually converted into sugar. During this process, one of respiration, bananas absorb oxygen and exude carbon dioxide.

They should not be severed from the stalk or the “hand” that holds the “fingers,” be cause until fully ripe, the fruit is prac tically a living organism drawing susten ance from the stalk, with sap flowing and tissues changing, and heat is generated within the fruit in the ripening process.

Bananas so ripened develop a high qual ity of colour, firmness, flavour and food value requisite in the matured product.

How much nicer is it to have the bananas one selects in a shop cut off the stalk by a specially designed knife, which does not tear the skin and expose the pulp, than to have them probably indifferently ripened and picked out from a window.

I have not seen the methods employed near Murwillumbah, north-eastern New South Wales, or near Gympie, Queensland, but know that the bananas are cut from their stalks and shipped in cases.

If anyone is interested in handling bana nas by the stalk, or in bananas generally, I commend The Story of the Banana, an excellent 60-page brochure, published free by the United Fruit Company mentioned.