All projects 01 June 2014

Carbon-neutral banana ripening plant for Chiquita

Chiquita is building a carbon-neutral banana ripening plant in Gorinchem. Kamplacon is contributing to the project by supplying special aluminium and wood-effect façade cladding.

Bananas do not grow anywhere near as well in the Netherlands as they do in the Tropics. Fortunately, they ripen excellently here. Global player Chiquita ripens its bananas at two sites in the Netherlands: Meppel and Gorinchem. Growth, efficiency improvements and sustainability were factors that prompted Chiquita to have a new banana ripening plant built next to the A15, on the Oost II industrial estate in Gorinchem.

Sustainable construction

This new building stands out on account of its sustainability. The process heat from the ripening plant is used to heat and cool the offices, toilets are flushed using rainwater, lights are equipped with daylight-responsive control and there is a charging station for charging electric vehicles.

This sustainability is also reflected in the façade cladding. Kamplacon installed the low-maintenance external wall systems. For this we used 45-900 trapezoidal sheets in the colour RAL 9006 and installed them horizontally. In keeping with the sustainable character of the building, we also fitted Hairplan 300 profiles and 2005B sandwich panels, both in Betula 71B1 wood effect.