Are banana prices coming down?

Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and Fruit

I’ve seen bananas selling for $9.99 in two different locations this week. While a year ago it would be madness to regard this as “cheap”, it’s significantly better than the $14.99 prices we’ve been seeing over the last few months.

Following the havoc caused by Tropical Cyclone Larry in March, early predictions were that banana supply would be restored by September of this year. However wet weather in north Queensland, particularly around Tully and Innisfail, delayed the planting of new crops and slowed down the development of suckers in the regrowth areas. It’s only really this month that significant enough quantities are getting to market to start driving the price down. Although, I think it will be well into the new year before we see bananas approaching their old prices.

Last week 160,056 cartons of bananas were shipped from Queensland, one month ago 75,363 cartons were shipped, whereas July / August that was down to between 15,000 and 20,000 per week.

Source: Australian Banana Growers’ Council .

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