Bananas don't just suddenly materialise on the shelves of the supermarket; in fact they have quite a tale to tell of their journey and a new exhibit at the Eden Project in Cornwall, featuring a 50-metre conveyor circuit, will do just that.
Installed by Birmingham-based Rusmail Conveyor Systems in partnership with French company OCA, the specially constructed conveyor carries large bundles of artificial bananas as if f reshly picked from the plantation.
These travel down through the various levels of the Humid Tropics Biome to the packing station, ready for shipment aboard the life-size "Tropic Trader".
David Craddock, exhibit design manager, said: "Our intention with any exhibit is to connect plants with people.
"Here in the biome you can see bananas growing and we wanted visitors to appreciate them not just as botanical specimens but as commodity products, important to both the people and the economies where they are grown."
The exhibit has an interactive element inviting visitors to crank the handle and activate the conveyor system while learning all about the fruit.
It explores both low-volume small producers to high-volume mechanised production and their methods of picking, washing, grading and packing. For authenticity, some banana bundles will be swathed in sacks, sent over from Costa Rica which are used to protect the bananas from pest infestation on their journey from the plantations.
The Eden Project, which attracts over one million visitors a year, is showcasing the story of the banana as part of a number of events themed around tropical fruits and other foodstuffs.
Nechells-based Rusmail Conveyor Systems has been designing, manufacturing and installing conveyor systems for over 20 years. The Eden Project conveyor is one of the company's first installations with an educational/leisure application.
