Shipping specialist Maersk Line has announced its ambitions to increase considerably the distance that bananas can be transported, opening up new markets for producer countries worldwide.

Its new controlled atmosphere containers, StarCare, will allow the container shipping company to remove the limits on travelling distance.

The new capsules have been specifically designed to carry bananas over longer distances and are able to maintain outstanding product quality for up to 45 days.

This will help Maersk Line open up services to markets further away from source and could impact conversely on closer destinations that have been traditionally within a 20-25-day reach of the source country by boat.

The new containers regulate humidity levels and temperature. The atmosphere is a mixture of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, keeping products fresh.

The company said this would eliminate the need for Banavac bags, potentially saving its customers time and money.

A spokesperson said: “StarCare offers shippers and consignees the efficiencies and flexibility of containerised transport - even enabling you to ship small quantities of bananas to remote markets.”

Using an advanced membrane to take advantage of the bananas’ natural ripening process, the containers apparently control which gases are allowed to escape, maintaining ideal atmospheric conditions inside the container, delaying the ripening process and extending the bananas’ shelf life.

It is likely that exporters in Ecuador that use Maersk may now ship to the Middle East, Japan, China, Russia and the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and New Zealand, where they may not have shipped to previously.

Costa Rican exporters may now have access to valuable markets in Russia and the East Coast of South America, which previously have proven difficult for them to reach.

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