Frozen bananas on menu

A TULLY banana producer will take their fruit to new heights with plans to tap into the fast growing retail-ready frozen fruit market.

Mackay Farming Group is the country’s largest banana producer and first started trailing the commercial production of frozen banana products as a viable marketing option eight years ago.

Now confident that they’ve got the processes right, the company plans to have its own frozen banana packs on supermarket shelves within 12 months.

Company director Cameron Mackay said branching off into the frozen market started off in a trial phase, looking into processing frozen bananas for the food manufacturing industries. And it seems the Mackay Farming Group – a family-run company managed by brothers Cameron, Stephen and Daniel and their cousins Gavin and Barrie – were right on the money.

The frozen fruit and vegetable market has grown considerably in recent years, driven by a consumer thirst for convenience and a global trend towards cleaner and healthier eating.

“The retail-ready market is an emerging and popular market now,” Cameron said.

“In the next 12 months we will have a retail-ready pack for frozen bananas. Once we have the system down pat for bananas, then we will look at other tropical fruits.

“We’re already doing trials with papaya, blueberries and we might look at mangoes next year as well.”

With almost all of the bananas used for the frozen line classed as seconds produce, it’s also helping the Mackay’s – and others in the industry – make the most of the fruit grown across the Far North.”