Blue Star to aggressively promote banana ripening chambers

Central airconditioning and commercial refrigeration major, Blue Star, has announced that it will aggressively promote its offerings for banana ripening. 

India is the world’s largest producer of bananas accounting for 26% of global production. It is available throughout the year, across the country and is consumed by all strata of people in the society. The country’s export contribution is minimal mainly due to huge domestic consumption. Like any other agricultural produce, the banana too is highly perishable. In the raw state and at a low temperature the shelf life is long. However, with high temperatures, the natural process of ripening begins with the shelf life of ripe banana of just a day or two. Hence, raw bananas are held in cold storages and transported; but are ripened only in the place of consumption. 

There are various conventional and unacceptable practices in the country to artificially ripen bananas. Conventionally, traders use smoke chambers and calcium carbide, which contain toxins and are harmful. These are now banned in many parts of the country and are being monitored more aggressively by the policy makers. Globally, the ripening is done through gas emission systems or ethylene generator systems, depending on quality and shelf life desired. 

Blue Star offers both gas emission ripening systems as well as ethylene generator systems along with necessary controls for monitoring ripening parameters. Typically, bananas are housed in a PUF insulated room along with refrigeration units to create and maintain desired temperature and humidity conditions for ripening. Ethylene is injected at a particular ppm level to ensure that the bananas get ripened within the desired period. The bananas ripened through Blue Star’s systems ensures even ripening, controlled output as per the demand, uniform golden yellow colour, longer shelf life and improved marketability of bananas. 

Speaking to the Press at a conference held in Mumbai, B Thiagarajan, President, Airconditioning & Refrigeration Products Group said: "We are happy that the monitoring agencies have banned the usage of toxic ways to ripen bananas. Blue Star has supplied ethylene gas emission based banana ripening chambers to over a hundred facilities in the country. In addition to deep domain knowledge and good products, our differentiator is our engineering expertise to execute such projects as well as a strong service infrastructure. We are confident that given the huge offtake of bananas in the country, we will be in a position to leverage on the opportunities available." 

About Blue Star
Blue Star is India’s largest central airconditioning company with an annual turnover of over Rs 2500 crores, a network of 29 offices, five modern manufacturing facilities and around 2500 employees. It has over six decades of experience in providing expert cooling solutions and fulfils the needs of a large number of corporate and commercial customers. Blue Star has also established leadership in the field of commercial refrigeration equipment ranging from water coolers to cold chain equipment. It also offers expertise in Building Electrification and Plumbing and Fire Fighting Projects. Blue Star's other businesses include marketing and maintenance of hi-tech professional electronic and industrial systems.