It’s time for TN to go bananas!
WEDNESDAY, 19 DECEMBER 2012 14:52 KUMAR CHELLAPPAN | CHENNAI
The Margazhi Festival of December (the annual conclave of music and dance) in Chennai is all set to get supplemented with a festival of another kind. Friday will see the inauguration of Banana Festival, the first of its kind event in South India. The festival, a joint venture between the State Government and the Confederation of Indian Industry, is being staged to make Tamil Nadu bananas a global brand.
“The day is not far off when customers, whether they be in New York, Madrid, Sydney, Bangkok or Brasilia, would be able to buy branded bananas grown in Tamil Nadu like any other branded fruits from other countries. This is the first attempt to make Tamil Nadu bananas a global brand,” B Thiagarajan, convener, Agricultural and Food Processing Panel, CII, told The Pioneer.
Thiagarajan is confident that the festival would be a great hit with fruit aficionados and businessmen. “Tamil Nadu is the largest banana producer in the country. Though our annual production is 28 million tones, we are not exporting the bananas and most of the production gioes waste because of lack of post-harvest infrastructure facilities,” said Thiagarajan who heads Blue Star Ltd, pioneers in AC and cold storage industry.
B Ajeethan, joint secretary, National Banana Growers Association, said Tamil Nadu produces some of the most exotic banana varieties cultivated in the world itself. “People are ignorant about the nutritional and medicinal values of varieties like Karpoora Valli, Rasthali, Nainthran and Then Vaazhai (honey banana) grown in Tamil Nadu. What ails the sector is the lack of knowledge among the farmers about the technology available in the market which could help them sell their products to the global customers. We still use the primitive technology for ripening the bananas. Most of the 1,00,000 banana farmers have not even heard of ripening chambers,” said Ajeethan, himself a leading banana grower in Namakkal district.
He said the Banana Festival would bring farmers, industry, and food processing scientists on a common platform where the farmers stand to gain a lot. “A feasibility study prepared by us show that banana farmers in Tamil Nadu stand to gain more than `6,000 crore per year by switching over to scientific harvesting and post harvesting phases,” said Thiagarajan. Both Ajeethan and Thiagarajan said international consumers would accept bananas only if they are unblemished and packed properly. “The bananas get blemished because of primitive style of ripening and unethical handling methods. If we make available modern ripening chambers, reefers and packaging materials, the global consumers would jump into the Tamil Nadu bananas,” said Thiagarajan.
Ajeethan said the average shelf- life of all the 32 varieties of bananas grown in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere could be increased by another ten days if the farmers switch over to the modern technology. “This is a win-win situation for all stake holders. The consumer stands to get quality bananas while the farmers are sure to get assured returns for their crops,” said Thiagarajan. The Banana Festival is going to be a permanent annual feature in Chennai. “We are also planning a pine apple festival in Kerala to help pineapple growers in that State,” he said.
The Jayalalithaa government has already floated global tenders to set up a series of cold storages, ripening chambers and reefer centres to ensure that the banana farmers in the State get all basic infrastructure facilities for their pre and post harvest operations. So, next time when visit the nearest super market, don’t get surprised when you see specially packed Tamil Nadu Bananas like Karpoora Valli and Honey Banana sitting in the company of Florida Oranges and Tel Aviv Apples. One cannot rule out the possibility of a continental breakfast featuring Washington Apples, Tamil Nadu Bananas and a cup of Darjeeling Tea.
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