New, state-of-the-art nurseries built in Bay Roberts — for bananas

Cozy blankets, tropical temperatures, loving care — and a gentle spray of ethylene gas.

Turns out, that's all a growing banana really needs.

"We treat our bananas like a newborn baby," said Valerie Morgan, marketing coordinator with Atlantic Grocery Distributors.

Her company has just built a state-of-the-art, three-room banana ripening facility in Bay Roberts. Each room is tall and narrow, collectively capable of caring for 63 pallets — about 30,000 bananas — at a time.

"It's quite a lot of bananas," Morgan said.

Bananas are the top-selling produce item in the world, she said, even more popular than potatoes, and Atlantic Grocery Distribution ships out 45,000 pounds of them across the province each week.

"You can't help but be a little bit of a banana dork," she said.

'Low and slow' at the banana spa

So what's a week like for a banana at the Bay Roberts ripening centre?

It's pretty sweet, Morgan said.

They arrive green, unripe and in need of of some rest and relaxation she said.

"If you tried to peel it you'd literally snap it in half, it's inedible."

The first days are spent in the holding room with bunches of their similarly unripened siblings.

Then they're moved to the second room, where the real magic happens.

From green to yellow

That room is kept humid and warm, "almost tropical," she said.

Once they're good and cozy, they're bathed in a "nice little vapour" of ethylene gas, just enough to bring the green around to a bright yellow in about 24 hours.

"We do it kind of low and slow," she said.

The result is a perfectly ripened, soft and delicious banana, she said, ready for peanut butter sandwiches and steaming pancake piles everywhere.

But before they're shipped out, they're moved to the third room, where conditions are kept comparably lush, until they're are wrapped in blankets — "like you would a baby," she said — and placed onto shipping pallets.

Bananas are big business

The ripening system solves a persistent problem for the company, she said. Before, they'd be ripened in Montreal and then trucked to Newfoundland. But there are always variables in transport — blizzards, ferry problems — so the company was always running the risk of the bananas showing up brown.

"We weren't getting a consistent banana," she said.

And bananas are big business, so consistency matters a lot, she said.

"A lot of customers base their shopping decision on great produce sections, but especially on bananas," she said.

Now stores have the option of fresh-from-the-nursery, consistently bright bananas, basking happily in the glow of the grocery store lights.

"We're excited to see where this is going to take us."

With files from the St. John's Morning Show

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