Middle East goes bananas over Moz fruit

Five years after the first banana tree was planted, Matanuska Banana development in Mozambique is exporting more than 4 000 TEUs per annum. According to Alberto Mafumo, export and shipping manager for Matanuska, the export of bananas destined for the Middle East has seen phenomenal growth and continues to do so. “Our target for 2014 is a total of 5 200 TEUs. At present we are packing 15 containers a day during the peak season,” he told FTW. “By next year we want to increase that to a minimum of 25 containers a day.” The project, which is situated near Monapo City, makes use of the Port of Nacala that is about 100km away. “Currently we have 1 200ha under plantation and that will be increased by another 600ha this year. Our target is to have at least 3 000ha of banana plantation with all the fruit exported through Nacala.” Mafumo said one of the first challenges of the project was water security and to address this challenge a dam was built. “Another challenge was skills resources and to address that banana growing experts were brought in from Latin America and the Philippines to nurture and transfer skills,” he said. “The agricultural challenges have in the past five years largely sorted themselves out and the banana plantation development is progressing very well organically in phases.” Not the same can be said for the logistics with every single container shipped out “being an event”. “There are only two lines on the schedule when they can cobble a schedule together,” said Mafumo. “Nothing runs smoothly and we never expect it to as there are just too many variables that need to be lined up for a sustainable and consistent operation.” Nonetheless much has been achieved in five years to set up a supply chain of a perishable product out of Nacala. “One of the biggest problems we encountered was the bad quality reefers we were receiving on the farm that resulted in major losses of millions of dollars in the first few years,” said Mafumo. “Since then we have set up infrastructure, we have created a supply chain which includes demanding high quality reefers from lines and implementing some reliability to the supply chain.” But for the most part the challenges remain – poorly prepared containers that are often rejected on arrival – which carries a high cost – and a congested port where bananas are not a priority. “Despite all of this we are increasing our exports proving that the perishable trade out of East Africa is very viable,” said Mafumo. “Rome was not built in a day and neither will Nacala be. But suffice to say it will be built.” INSERT One of the biggest problems we encountered was the bad quality reefers we were receiving on the farm that resulted in major losses of millions of dollars in the first few years. – Alberto Mafumo