Smurfit Kappa Launches Sustainable BanaBag for Banana Producers

BanaBag®, is the innovative and 100% sustainable product that Smurfit Kappa offers to banana producers across the region. It is a unique solution for organic producers, because it protects the fruit and reduces the overheating that other materials produce.

BanaBag® is 100% paper based, which makes it renewable, recyclable and biodegradable. This makes it the perfect choice for banana producers that are supplying international markets where consumers are demanding sustainable products with traceable production and supply chains.

Some of the largest banana exporters in the world are in South and Central America. In fact, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic are on the list of the 10 countries that export more than 80% of the world´s bananas, mainly to European markets. This challenges producers to continuously adapt to the fast pace trend of consumers who want to be reassured that the products they are buying and consuming are sustainable.

These trends have led the organic banana sector to implement environmentally friendly processes in their plantations, without sacrificing quality and efficiency in all stages of the fruit´s growth.

 “Our job is to properly handle the fruit in the production process so that it arrives healthy and in the best quality conditions at its final international destination” says Louis Hesselholt, manager of Dominique Banana in Santa Marta (Colombia). “The arrival of BanaBag® to our plantations matches perfectly with or purpose , reinforces the organic characteristics of our export product and contributes to our goal of reducing in 100% all contaminant plastic waste in the farming management from our farms”.

The use of non-sustainable materials in Dominique Banana´s production process was a huge challenge for the company, because of their difficult recycling process and problems of land pollution. In addition, it was a need because the plastic bunch bag commonly overheated the fruit generating loss due to sunburn. By implementing Smurfit Kappa´s BanaBag® and its protective characteristics in the Campo Alegre and Granja plantations, the fruit´s quality increased; post-harvest recycling processes were optimized and since BanaBag® is compostable, the soil was fertilized.

“At Smurfit Kappa we are oriented towards the innovation and development of paper-based products that take care of the environment and help our customers in the improvement of their processes and products. We have become allies of the agricultural sector with solutions like. BanaBag® and we hope to continue contributing to better results for farmers in the Americas and Europe who want to be sustainable.” remarks Iñaki Urdaci, Marketing Insight Manager of Smurfit Kappa.