Quality and Logistics

EARTH’s farm produces top quality bananas known for their creamy texture. Edmund LaMacchia, National Vice President of Procurement – Perishables for Whole Foods Market explains, “The EARTH banana has exceptional culinary quality due to the cultural farming practices of the university and the growing conditions of the humid tropics in Costa Rica. These bananas are very full or round in shape because the fruit is very mature at harvest. Consequently EARTH bananas are creamy and moist in texture with a rich and complex flavor.”

Production for Whole Foods undergoes strict quality screening at several stages during cutting and packing and meets the same specifications as bananas from the big banana companies. EARTH manages export / import and shipping logistics of its bananas for Whole Foods from Costa Rica to various destinations inside the United States.

Bananas are cut and packed green and shipped on boats in refrigerated containers. After passing through customs, the bananas are sent to a ripening facility in the area where they will ultimately be sold. The bananas are ripened for 2 to 4 days in rooms where temperatures and humidity is controlled and where ethylene gas can be introduced to ripen bananas to specific color stages defined by customers. Ripened bananas are then shipped almost daily to supermarkets where they will have a shelf life of 2 or 3 days.