Fresh Fruit Handling Practices: A Case Study of Banana Value Chain in the Nairobi Metropolitan Fresh Produce Markets

Abstract

Fresh banana fruit value chains play an important role in nourishing the nutrition of millions of people globally. With the growth in the demand of fresh fruits, challenges relating to the quality and safety due to unconventional practices such as increased prevalence of illicit ripening of fresh banana fruit in some of the markets emerge. In this study, fruit handling storage and ripening practices in fresh banana fruit value chains in some of the largest fresh fruit markets in Kenya were evaluated to establish some of the factors that drive food quality and safety problems. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Stratified random sampling was used to identify the participants. Thirty traders were selected from each of the five markets and zones situated in three densely populated counties in the Nairobi metropolitan area. Data was analysed using SPSS. Fruit characteristics varied depending on the source of fruit, with the farm being the most popular point of sourcing fruit by traders across the five zones. All the traders had knowledge of the exact source of their fruit and the time the fruit was harvested. About 97% of the traders assessed the maturity of the fruit before sourcing them, with 73% and 24% of the traders using colour and fruit size as the criteria for assessing fruit maturity, respectively. A one-way ANOVA of the data showed that the source of fruit did not have a significant (p>0.05) effect on the time the fruit took to ripen, quantities ripened by traders or time before fruit spoilt. Low sales (70%), poor storage conditions (13%) and use of poor ripening methods (3%) were reported to be the major causes of fruit spoilage. The use of passion fruit as a natural fruit ripening agent was associated with relatively higher fruit spoilage. The majority (96%) of players in fresh banana value chains had poor attitudes towards training in fruit handling, ripening and storage. This study recommends training of fresh fruit value chain players, the development of low-cost cooling solutions and the establishment of fruit storage and ripening infrastructure to mitigate against fruit spoilage within the fresh fruit markets in Kenya.