SECURITY SYSTEMS FOR THE SAFE EXPORT OF BANANAS
Have you ever wondered what facilities are necessary for the safe transport of bananas?
If so, find out below what we do to export bananas from Ecuador.
There is a plethora of them (packing facility, sanitation, transportation, …). Some are located right at the origin of the fruit while others are mobile. One example is the packing house, an infrastructure we’ve already talked about in our BananitaBlog: Bananas on the runway . This facility is located within the banana plantations and is crucial for safeguarding the sanitation practices and the quality of the bananas.
But this time we will focus on another important item of the supply chain: security.
Shipments must be protected against the load of narcotics. Therefore, we must pay attention to the conditions in which fruit is transported from overseas to the ripening facilities. Indeed, some overseas routes can last over a month.
Consequently, many agents collaborate along the supply chain. But this also implies that some unwanted groups may try to enter the supply chain. That’s why it’s important to stay alert throughout the supply chain. We must never let our guard down, especially in three places:
- The port.
- The storage center for containers
- The trucks.
When bananas are going to be harvested, the first thing to do is to pick up the containers at the port. Our containers are provided by the shipping companies.
Once the containers are collected at the port, they go directly to the packing house. This is done in the same day of the cutting to preserve the fruit in its best quality conditions. Afterwards containers are transported to the port again and loaded on vessels.
To secure the cargo containers once a shipment is loaded, we use locking devices.
These are known as container seals and ensure that containers remain unopened during the journey to their final destination, where they are removed by the consignee.
However, occasionally the schedule of the shipping companies is in conflict with the moment when fruit is going to be cut. Then, containers must wait before being loaded on vessels.
Thus, having a storage center for containers is crucial.
In Banabio we offer a huge storage center for containers that guarantees the security of their content. Besides security, our storage center helps by providing containers at the right time to finish properly the process at the packing house.
Throughout the transport process, the containers are randomly subjected to numerous safety inspections by the authorities: X-rays, sniffer dogs, …. Moreover, anti-smuggling tools reinforce the security at all facilities, both mobile and stationary: fence systems, alarms and CCTV, satellite tracking…
But all the above cannot guarantee the security of the supply chain unless we have well-qualified staff. That is why we regularly train our staff in container security. We just did it last month.
Our training includes different aspects of security for exporting bananas, such as:
Security in containers.
Safety in truck transport.
Packing process and security.
Narcotics risks types.
Security inspections to be carried out.
Port statistics.
And this is but a brief overview of what underlies the secure transport of bananas. There is a great deal of collective effort behind the export of bananas from Ecuador.
As stated on its website, https://globalbasc.com/index.php/about-basc/ BASC – Business Alliance for Secure Commerce, is a non-profit international business alliance, headquartered in Miami, Florida, led and controlled by its member companies. Since its creation in 1996, BASC has been committed to supporting the mission of customs and border authorities and has cooperation agreements with the World Customs Organization, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
All BASC companies are pre-screened locally by a committee of their peers to assess their “trustworthiness” in terms of integrity and ethics and are audited annually to ensure their continued compliance with the BASC International Norm and Standards.
