Keventer bananas ‘safe’

KOLKATA: Most of the bananas , available in the local markets, are ripened either with Calcium Carbide or Ethephon , which are very harmful for health, even may lead to cancer as both the chemicals are carcinogenic. Identification of safe bananas from the market has become very difficult for the common people.

To solve this problem, the largest organised business company in the fruit frozen food markets, Keventer has taken initiative for supplying bananas ripened with 'Ethylene', which is approved by Food Safety Standard Authority of India (FSSAI), a recognised body of the government, as the best method for ripening bananas which causes no harm to health . Needless to mention, safety in all its food products is the core value proposition of Keventer.

Banana is very helpful for health. According to medical practitioners, banana should be taken by the people every day, as it has Vitamin 'C' and potassium. .Doctors explained that banana contains vitamin C, which helps grow immunization and protect from incurable inflammatory bowel disease respectively. This has been jointly discovered by Indio-American medical scientists. It is a myth that the children cannot be given banana during their cough & cold, Doctors added.

Keventer, one of the largest organized player in bananas, sell about 3.5 lakh pieces daily i.e. about 50 metric tonnes bananas every day all over Bengal from its two centres, located in Barasat, near Kolkata and Siliguri.

Their ripening centre at Barasat was constructed with an expenditure of about Rs.50 crores and the Siliguri Centre was built with Rs 104 crores. From Barasat centre, they supply bananas mainly to Kolkata, Midnapore, Durgapur and other markets. Siliguri, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Gangtak and other markets are served from their Siliguri Centre.

Keventer is the market- leader by a wide margin , i.e. at least 3 (three) times even from their nearest competitor. They procure about 20,000 tonnes of bananas annually from Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas, Murshidabad and Hooghly districts, about 50,000 farmers are directly benefitted with their business. It may be mentioned here that due to association with Keventer , the realisation of bananas from the farmers has gone up by at least 30-40% during the last 5 years.

To help the customers, so that they can easily identify the safe bananas in the market, Keventer brands its bananas with the Stickers and also has a mascot, named "Keven". Their stickers are range from the functional (highlighting the carbide -free aspect) to the fun (with different appearances of mascots at the time of Pujas, Sports etc.).