Oddbox goes bananas.
Spotted something long, yellow and bendy on your add-ons or swaps list? There’s a newbie in town, and it’s had quite the journey to get here.
We caught up with Gav, Head of Sourcing, to get the banana backstory. (Sadly not in his pyjamas or coming down the stairs, as requested for the interview.)
O: Hi Gav! For any Oddboxers who don’t know you, tell us who you are and what you do.
G: Hi everyone. So as Head of Sourcing I’m responsible for all the fruit and veg in your boxes. That means making sure the produce we’re rescuing is high quality – and also that it’s genuinely at risk of going to waste, so it aligns with our mission. This is where it gets tricky with bananas, and it’s one of the reasons it’s taken so long for us to be able to include them in your boxes.
O: Can you tell us more about that? What’s the story?
G: We’ve always wanted to give bananas as an option, as we know getting all your fruit and veg in one go is much more convenient. But it’s not as simple as it might seem…
If you’re a long-time Oddboxer, you might remember that we tried including bananas in boxes as part of our rescue mission a while ago. We were rescuing ‘class 2’ bananas – for most other fruit and veg, class 2 could mean it being a bit wonky or an unusual colour. But with bananas, we found that class 2 meant lots of bruising and also single bananas at different stages of ripeness.
Sadly we found that we were wasting too many on our supply chain, and our community told us they were throwing away lots at home. So we had to stop that and rethink things. It’s taken us a couple of years to find the best way forward, but we’re really pleased we put in the work to get it right.
O: So what’s different about these bananas? Are they still class 2?
G: No. After a lot of research, we’ve realised that bananas need to be treated differently to our other fruit and veg, so we’re being very open about the fact that these ones aren’t rescued. Class 2 just wasn’t good enough, and ‘surplus’ bananas don’t really exist in the UK either.
The bananas in our boxes are the next best thing – they’re organically grown and Fairtrade, which means we can be completely confident that they’ve been ethically produced. We’ve also run lots of tests with our own team to make sure the bananas arrive on doorsteps in tip-top condition, so that we can be sure they won’t be wasted at home.
O: Why aren’t there any surplus bananas?
G: Amazingly, around 90% of households buy bananas each week in the UK – and that’s pretty consistent all year round. So unlike other fruit and veg which might have seasonal peaks, demand is steady. Bananas also arrive in the UK when they’re still green, which means they can be ripened ‘on demand’ in ripening facilities if more (or fewer) are needed. It’s a whole new world of fruit.
O: Wow! So tell us about the bananas in our boxes. Where are they from and who grew them?
G: We’re starting with organically grown Fairtrade bananas from the Dominican Republic, but we also have a similar supplier in Colombia. We can trace our bananas all the way back to the farms where they were grown, which is one of the reasons we chose Fairtrade over any other accreditation.
O: What does Fairtrade mean and how does it work?
G: Fairtrade sets social, economic and environmental standards for the companies and farmers involved in the supply chain. As part of the agreement, companies have to pay their producers a Fairtrade minimum price to cover the cost of production, along with a Fairtrade premium which is paid to the growers’ cooperative. This premium can be invested in business or community projects.
For our banana farmers, we know that the Fairtrade premium is used in lots of incredible ways – from buying school supplies to improving medical and dental care and even supporting the construction of new houses. Because we’re sourcing bananas that aren’t rescued, this gives us the reassurance that we’ve found the next best thing.
O: Thank you Gav – lastly, can you tell us what you’ll be making with your bananas?
G: Smoothies, always smoothies. I also recommend peeling your bananas and freezing them if you can’t eat them before they go brown – then just whizz them up from frozen.
Thanks to Gav and everyone at Oddbox involved in the banana chronicles. Because they’re not rescued, we won’t be putting bananas in boxes automatically – but if you’d like to pick up a bunch, they’ll be on the list as an add-on or a swap if you can pick-your-own. Arriving just in time for pancakes.
