Tropical fruit giant Fyffes has added another string to its bow, using its expertise in importing temperature-sensitive, time-critical shipments of bananas and pineapples from the tropics to offer a new shipping service to Irish exporters.

Fyffes Atlantic Shipping, a new subsidiary of the fruit distribution group, will for the first time allow Irish exporters to ship cargo directly to North, South and Central America, as well as Canada and the Caribbean.

Even though the Republic is the closest European landfall to the US, until now goods had first to go either to British or Continental ports and be transferred from one ship to another - due to the lack of direct sailings from Ireland.

According to a study published in January by the Irish Exporters Association, this situation placed Irish exporters at a considerable disadvantage to their European competitors which could avail of direct shipping services.

Fyffes is now transporting bananas and pineapples from South America to Dublin port, and, rather than making the return journey with an empty ship, the excess capacity is now being used to service the export trade.

One of the key selling points of this service, which was officially launched in Dublin port yesterday, is that once goods are loaded on to the ship, they remain on board all the way to its destination, be that Halifax, Barbados or Venezuela, and the ship's location can be tracked at all times on the company's website.

Project manager Pat Hayden, who has 40 years' experience in shipping, says that with transhipping, cargo can often end up sitting around in ports for a week or longer waiting to be transferred to another ship. With the Fyffes service, the cargo goes directly from Dublin to its destination.

"You're looking at security of your cargo on board the ship, and also reliability," says Mr Hayden.

He explains that, because Fyffes has inward cargo, it has the critical mass needed to bring the mother ship into Dublin port, rather than just servicing the port with feeder ships. You need that critical mass to come directly into the market and that has been the impediment preventing people coming in for a long time, he added. Dairy, meat and pharmaceutical sectors look set to benefit most from this new weekly shipping service, which is capable of holding 250 temperature-controlled containers.

However, exporters across the whole spectrum are likely to take advantage of it to access markets such as North America, which is Ireland's second largest market outside the EU.

Mr Hayden explains that temperature control is vital for a lot of cargo which can encounter hugely varying temperatures in transit - from minus 30 degrees in Canada during the winter to 40 degrees in the Caribbean.

Gerry Cunningham, managing director of Fyffes Atlantic Shipping, notes: "There's no more unforgiving product than a banana. So if you can get the banana right, you can get anything right."

He explains that the company has moved from a five-ship rotation to seven ships in order to give more leeway in the schedule. The additional vessels allow them to deal with adverse weather conditions, such as hurricanes in the Caribbean, without any delays to the service.

Until recently, Fyffes only worked out of Foynes port in Shannon. The move to Dublin port has made it much easier and faster to transport fruit to the ripening depots while reducing annual HGV running miles by 780,000, says Mr Hayden.

Although the service was only officially launched yesterday, the service is already up and running in association with shipping company Europe West Indies Lines.