b'jUnE 22 - jUly 26, 2020TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED LOGISTICS 17(CRISIScontinued from page 16) Banana Imports by Country Banana Imports by U.S. Portwe have no bananas today in the 1920s. Unfortunately, the lyrics proved prescience as in the 1950s the PanamaCountry of Origin20192018 Port of ArrivalQ1 2020Q1 2019Q1 2018disease (first reported in Australia in 1876), a wilt causedGuatemala 212,446198,551Wilmington, DE44,85444,20835,088 by a fungus (fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense) wiped outCosta Rica 93,78293,606Philadelphia, PA 17,395 16,74514,848 vast tracts of Gros Michel plantations in Central America Ecuador 78,83681,946Gulfport, MS 15,74817,31416,272 Honduras 64,71870,772San Diego, CA 15,66014,95013,972 pushing the variety to commercial extinction and growersColombia 38,82249,152Port Hueneme, CA 14,91511,89011,314 began looking for a substitute. Mexico 32,79228,528Port Everglades, FL 9,6368,3445,914 The Cavendish banana was the commercial solutionPeru 9,25510,880Freeport, TX6,4826,9787,552 and replaced the Gros Michel as the banana of choice forPanama 1,854407Seattle, WA 3,0922,6922,988 export in the 1960s. It now is virtually the only bananaEl Salvador 630210Galveston, TX 2,7722,1741,636 variety carried in the big supermarkets that are responsibleNicaragua 4542,040New York/Newark NY/NJ2,7642,347 2,700 for most consumer sales. And the Cavendish makes com- Others 432596Others 6,8127,94412,518 Total534,021536,688 Total 140,130135,586124,802 mercial sense, as it has a high yield per acre, short growthSource: Descartes - DatamyneSource: Descartes - Datamyne periodnine months - and a natural resilience to the bumps and bruises inherent to shipping over long distances.Banana Imports by Country Banana Imports by U.S. PortBut history may be repeating itself with the spread of Country of Origin20192018 Port of Arrival20182019Tropical Race 4 (TR4) of the Fusarium wilt fungus that hasTransfrut Express Limited 227,046237,514Wilmington, DE 174,498164,468 been affecting banana production in Asia.Great White Fleet Ltd [Chiquita] 89,786133,008Philadelphia, PA 68,45767,723 TR4 is a soil pathogen that attacks the roots of theNetwork Shipping Ltd72,98272,348Gulfport, MS 65,32669,990 banana plant and blocks its vascular system. The damageSealand [Maersk] 35,20939,797San Diego, CA 57,95256,896 firstshowsintheleaves,whichturnyellowfromtheirSeaboard Marine Ltd 18,90023,212Port Hueneme, CA 45,99047,416 trailing edges before wilting away.Hapag Lloyd A G 10,91412,748Port Everglades, FL 30,88827,518 AccordingtoFAOreportsTR4wasfirstfoundinCrowley Latin America Services7,0544,984Freeport, TX 26,25431,598 Taiwan, and has subsequently moved from Southeast AsiaWorld Direct Shipping Llc 2,8981,916Port Manatee, FL 12,70412,468 MSC -Mediterranean Shipping Company2,6823,133Galveston, TX 11,2428,486Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines reporting casesDole Ocean Cargo Express 2,0782,002Seattle, WA 10,80012,614 in the 1990sto China, India, the Middle East and AfricaOthers 64,4726,026Others 29,91037,511and is now threatening Latin American banana plantations.Total 534,021536,688 Total 534,021536,688With no cure for TR4, the only solution growers have isSource: Descartes - DatamyneSource: Descartes - Datamyne toabandondiseasedsites andisolatetheircultivationironically like the Covid-19 situationto prevent furtherHERE FOR YOUspread of the contagion.t heB usiness oFB ananasIts no surprise that Latin America (excluding Mexico) plus the Caribbean accountedSAFETY. COMMITMENT. INTEGRITY.fortheboatloadofbanana exportsin2019,valuedat anestimated$8.3billionor about57%ofglobalsales. Europeanexporters,largely formercoloniesinthe ACP (African-Caribbean-Pacific) accountedfor17.5%with Asianexporterstallying 15.6% and Africa 5.2%. The U.S. and EU engaged ina15-yearBananaWar over the EUs policy of favor-ing the ACP exports over those ofLatinAmericalargely backedbyU.S.companies (seebox).Underthebanana stabilizationpolicy,theEU couldsuspendpreferential treatmentshouldabanana exportingnationexceedits quotaorthresholdand/or destabilizetheEUbanana market. However, in June of 2019 the Commission decided against deploying the stabili-zation protocol on Nicaragua saleseventhoughthecoun-tryexceededthethreshold on banana imports to Europe in March, which was 14,500 tonsfortheentireyear. The Commissionslogicwasthe imports didnt have a delete-rious impact on the European banana market, despite the fact thatbananarateshadfallenFocused on Solutionsand imports had increased.WhilethedisagreementWe understand shipping goes beyond reliable deliveries. Its about youcreating solutions to meet over Latin American bananayour challenges. You can also count on us to maintain the correct temperature for your perishables importshastakenaback- in the most environmentally sustainable way while providing real-time tracking technology with our seat to more pressing issues such as BREXIT, COVID-19industry-first NaturaLINE reefers. Experience the TOTE Maritime differencecontact us today.and tariff wars, the split over bananas still lingers. Over the past decade the shapeofthebananamarket haschangedandcould1.877.775.7447|totemaritime.comwellchangeagaininapost (CRISIScontinued on page 20)'