CORK CITY, on the southern coast of Ireland, has welcomed the return of the banana trade with the recent launch of Maersk CRX service, reports Afloat, an Irish maritime magazine.

The geared 2,500-TEU range Nedlloyd Adriana and Maersk Nolanville, averaging 700 reefer points, are rotating through Bremerhaven, Veracruz, Altamira, Big Creek, Manzanillo, Puerto Moin, Cork, Tilbury, Rotterdam and back to Bremerhaven.

The liner service is complemented by an onward internal network of short-sea feeders such as the 834-TEU Vega Stockholm which calls at Dublin.

As in the case of the Maersk Line service which brings bananas from Mexico and Central America to Cork, there is no requirement to transfer such cargo by feeder vessel from the UK-north continent.

As a standalone service, the CRX will cater to fresh fruit shippers from Belize, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama to north Europe. The fruit loaded at Puerto Moin in Costa Rica will reach Tilbury in 13 days and Rotterdam in 15 days.

Separately, Maersk Line is taking the banana trade more seriously, having recently joined the New Vision for Agriculture initiative where we will work with key customers, governments and NGOs to advance objectives in global food supply chains, said the company website.

A single TEU holds 48,000 bananas, thus the giant 14,000-TEU Emma Maersk can move 746 million bananas. In 2009, a third of all bananas were transported using refrigerated containers, with the rest being transported mainly on larger specialised reefer ships, which are said to be in decline.

“India is the world’s biggest producer of bananas – but hardly exports any. It is estimated some 40 per cent of India’s fruit and vegetables rots in domestic transit because of poor infrastructure. Refrigerated transport of bananas from India to the Middle East has helped bring down waste during transit from 30 to 40 per cent to less than two per cent,” said the website statement.

“With Maersk Line’s StarCare containers, bananas can be held fresh for up to 50 days, creating new opportunities for producers and buyers to reach more distant markets,” said the website.

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