YES, we do have bananas! In fact, Southampton will soon have thousands of tons of the yellow fruit piling up on its dockside every year.

Southampton is now the banana capital of Great Britain after the arrival of the first Fyffes Group ship in Southampton for more than 20 years.

The Fyffes operation has now joined the other major banana importer Geest, which has been based at the Windward Terminal since 1993.

An almost constant stream of banana ships will soon be lining the quayside in the Western Docks as the city receives an enormous boost making Southampton one of the country's leading fruit-handling centres.

A wide-ranging construction programme upgrading shore-side facilities has now been completed after banana import giant Fyffes signed a contract to swap its long-established operation from Portsmouth to Southampton.

First ship in the Fyffes fleet to arrive was the 10,291-tonne Canterbury Star that discharged a cargo of bananas from the Central American countries of Belize and Honduras.

Fyffes will operate a total of 11 ships on the service, with three vessels a week calling at the Windward Terminal.

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