Dive Brief:
- BanaBay has opened an operations office in North America and is expanding into the pineapple business.
- The U.K.-based company, which imports bananas from Ecuador, has begun shipping pineapples to wholesalers in the U.S., New Zealand, and elsewhere.
- The expansion comes just two years after BanaBay entered the global fruit-shipping game with a single container of bananas to England. BanaBay now ships 5.7 million bananas a week.
Dive Insight:
Call it the classic underdog story. Despite being relatively new to the global distributing business, BanaBay has become a player in an industry dominated by Goliaths like Dole and Chiquita. The company has been around for 30 years, but only recently has it moved from mere grower to a worldwide distributor. With this new venture, some may be thrilled to see BanaBay take on another near monopoly -- the global trade in pineapples.