A marine expert has praised the performance of a batch of controlled atmosphere (CA) pineapples, which were controversially held dockside for a week by UK customs.

A row broke out last week (see April 26 issue) after Ecobras importer Jon Cameron-Brasil – who took a risk to trial the CA method on late season Ghanaian pineapples in readiness for the new season beginning in August – was hampered at Felixstowe by HM Customs & Excise.

But amid all the difficulties, the CA containers have emerged as a star, according to marine expert Carsten Jensen of Jensen Associates.

He said: 'If you have a high quality product from the beginning you can expect the CA to extend shelf life. If the Ecobras cargo was delivered when it should have been, they would have had two weeks to market the product.' And Jensen said considering the adverse situation it was a godsend CA containers had been used.

He said: 'If they had kept the fruit in a normal container it is likely some of the product couldn't have been marketed any more... it would have been damaged.

'There are a lot of products where we can get this type of benefit from CA,' he added.

Meanwhile, Cameron-Brasil was furious with HM Customs after the way it handled the cargo.

In an extract of his letter to Ipswich's complaints division he wrote: 'We do not dispute your statutory rights of examination, however we must complain about the unreasonable delay.

'This was a trial shipment, with the encouragement and co-operation of P&O. We were not engaged in a cunning plan for the movement of proscribed this and 'tother.

'On its opening... the pallets were seen to have been dangerously replaced in the container, the strapping loose, the cartons sagging and out of alignment and the whole thing was a complete mess. The depot operatives were very reluctant to offload it.' In last week's issue, P&O's Paul Summers speculated HM Customs may have been looking for drugs or gemstones – but has stressed he did not in any way wish to give the impression Ecobras was involved in trafficking.

He said: 'I did not wish to imply his [Cameron-Brasil's] company was shipping those type of commodities – and if he still thinks that, then I apologise.' He added he too was impressed with the way the CA pineapples performed in the troublesome circumstances – and said the method should be extended to other fruit.