Banana bunkers bloom in Dalian

Dalian Ruihua Everfresh Trade Co Ltd uses a bomb shelter to store bananas imported from Ecuador. The Dalian-based company handles one in three bananas sold in Northeast China, home to more than 101 million people. [Photo/China Daily]

Cross-continent trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars promises a healthy and fruitful future 

Dalian's emergence as China's banana capital shrouds many a fascinating tale.

It is about how technology-shaped globalization could help tackle worsening domestic food safety; rise of food trade with unlikely partners across oceans; livelihood opportunities for hardworking farmers and entrepreneurs in different continents and hemispheres; one-time luxury fruit coming within the reach of the ordinary people; and imaginative commercial use of wartime bunkers.

Such wide-ranging aspects are a result of bananas becoming big-ticket business. Last year, China imported 232,000 tons of bananas from Ecuador alone. If you factor in an average of six bananas per kilogram, that would equal 1.392 billion bananas, often considered one of the most affordable fruits.

In value terms, they cost around $185 million.

Huge spaces and right conditions are necessary to store such enormous quantity of fruit after import, before it could reach marketplaces and consumers. That's where Dalian excels.

Banana entrepreneur Zhang Jingyun, 37, CFO of family-run Dalian Ruihua Everfresh Trade Co Ltd, owes her success to Dalian. She often starts her workday in a bomb shelter, half an hour from the main office of the fruit importer in downtown Dalian. The old cement fortification, built in the 1960s during the Cold War, is now a banana store.

A minute's walk from the entrance into the dim tunnel, more than 200,000 boxes of bananas and other fruits are neatly stacked, with some reaching the arched ceiling. Forklifts bustle between them. Workers in blue uniforms load and unload.

"Winter or summer, the temperature (in Dalian bunkers) is always 13 to 14 degrees centigrade, the optimum level for storing bananas. A lot of fruit dealers in Dalian rent (bomb) shelters for storing bananas. They are natural refrigerators," said Zhang.

She studied and worked abroad for eight years before returning to join the family business. Bananas now top Ruihua's agenda because "of all the imported fruits, bananas are the most affordable with an average price of 10 yuan ($1.6) per kilogram", said Zhang.

Ruihua handles one in three bananas sold in the three provinces of Northeast China, home to more than 101 million people. Since its first order from Ecuador-36 containers with 75 tons of bananas－arrived at Dalian Port in October 2011, Ruihua has received a new shipment every week.