Banana exporters who have been transporting produce by air to Europe are closely watching a trial shipment by land and sea via the Kenyan port of Mombasa that could spell lower costs.

The sea route promises to cut shipment costs of fruits and vegetables from Uganda to the United Kingdom by 45 per cent. The UK is the single biggest destination for Uganda's matooke.

Matooke currently sells for $2.50 per kg and costs $1.85 per kg to ship.

A test shipment of 20 tonnes of fresh matooke left on January 10 for the UK. The consignment, loaded in a 40-foot refrigerator at Kyotera, Rakai, will take around 25 days to reach Europe. It takes three days by air.

A banana researcher at Kawanda Research Station, Dr Dezi Ngambeki, said the shipment follows a memorandum of understanding between the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), Horticulture Exporters Association (HORTEXA) and Jimmy Pan Impex, based in the UK.

“If the trial succeeds, the farmers will join together and find a bigger market. All they have to do is improve their standards to meet the international market demand," he said.

Dr Ngambeki said the National Banana Research Programme at Kawanda is pre-financing the costs of procuring the fruit and packaging, labour for harvesting, and other shipping costs.

The cost of transporting the container will be about $9,800 (about Shs17 million).

"We are meeting these costs up to the port of destination, then recovering from sales after Jimmy Pan Impex sells the matooke and makes payments," Ngambeki said. "So far, 64 farmers' groups are organized under one umbrella of Dwaniro Integrated Farmers Association. HORTEXA is providing the export license and experience."

Dr Ngambeki said the matooke was harvested two weeks before maturity. "We don't want to expose the bananas to rough conditions and temperatures. They have to be straight, not broken and the container must be kept under regulated temperatures at 13.3 degrees centigrade throughout the whole journey."

Uganda is the second biggest producer of bananas in the world after India. Statistics show that Uganda produces 11.5 million tones per year compared to India's 16 million tonnes.

The country began exporting matooke to Europe in 1987 and the tonnage has since increased to between 20 and 25 tonnes per week. Researchers say that Uganda farmers and traders have not gotten into the banana export markets because of insufficient market information and trouble with quality standards.

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