Page 10 - Hafen Hamburg Magazin
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■ PORT OF TASTE
 Quality is no accident
Among other places, they grow in Ecuador and make their way to Hamburg in ‘reefers’ – refrigerated con- tainers. “Some 80 percent of our volume are fresh bananas from Latin America,” says Axel Hoeckrich, Managing Director of HHLA Frucht- und Kühl-Zentrum, a subsidiary of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA). This service provider takes over the produce at the quay wall on behalf of the importer. The banana is a climacteric fruit that only reaches harvesting ripe- ness on the mother plant, i.e. it is harvested while still green. It is brought to consumption ripeness in ripening centres, before going out to the trade when ordered.
CONSTANT TEMPERATURE
Bananas are transported at a constant 13.4° C. They must not ripen further after harvesting, or during the approximately three-week ship voyage to Germany. If they arrive yellow they can no longer be sold. The quality checks are very strict. “Firstly we look at the container and check whether the ventilation flaps are
Inter Weichert and HHLA, with its fruit and refrigeration centre, handle bananas and fruits of all kinds for the grocery trade, coming from overseas to the
Port of Hamburg.
open and everything is okay with the temperature setting,” adds Hoeckrich. When Customs has issued an electronic clearance, the staff at HHLA fruit can open and discharge the container.
When opening, the temperature data from the box is automatically electronically transmitted to the service provider and importer, e.g. Internationale Fruchtimport Gesellschaft Weichert. This serves as evidence that the prescribed temperature has been maintained during the long sea voyage. All pallets are scanned at ‘goods in’ and ‘goods out’ so that the produce can always be traced.
TELLTALE SMELL
Before storage the bananas are subjected to both ‘green’ and temperature checks. “We are only al- lowed to store green bananas. Ones that have ripened further could trigger the ripening process for the rest of the produce,” stresses Hoeckrich. The staff screen every single pallet and each carton on the conveyor belt on the way into the warehouse. “If it smells of ripe bananas, then that is also a signal that the fruit is perishing prematurely,” adds Thanos Papageorgiou, responsible for quality assurance at Inter Weichert. The importer’s quality managers are equally on-the- spot for the arrival, pricking into individual bananas at random, to check the temperature in the fruit. In addition they check whether the carton description is correct, especially with eco-produce. The well- trained team also check the labelling and the quality seal, e.g. as an eco-crop, or its seamless traceabil- ity under the Global Gap guideline. A precondition for handling foodstuffs is the IFS - International Food Standard Certificate that is held by both HHLA fruit and Inter Weichert.
STRICT CONTROLS
At the quay wall other specialized service providers are working, who, with their inspectors, are for ex- ample appraising the quality for the Federal agency for agriculture and foodstuffs - BLE. Each and every individual container has to be registered with them. In accordance with EU import directives,bananas have
   EVERY STEP IN THE FRUIT LOGISTICS CHAIN IS CONTROLLED, MONITORED AND DOCUMENTED, CONFIRMS AXEL HOECKRICH, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT HHLA FRUCHT- UND KÜHL-ZENTRUM
10 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | June 2020
© HHLA/Joerg Schwalfenberg
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