Innisfail banana grower says online shopping, pandemic affecting sales

An Innisfail banana grower believes the rise in online shopping and the ripple effect of the global pandemic has led to a drop in demand heading into the New Year.

AN Innisfail banana grower believes the rise in online shopping and the ripple effect of the global pandemic has led to a drop in demand heading into the New Year.

Despite perfect conditions for growing, Australia Banana Farming Company general manager Steve Morice said the increase of click and collect was being felt at the tills.

“Generally this time of the year customers tend to go for the stone fruit over bananas, it's a seasonal product,” he said.

Shoppers have been using click and collect services more during the global pandemic, meaning some farmers products are getting missed. Photo: Justin Lloyd

“I think demand in general has been down the last couple of months and most of the year.

“It could be Covid related and the click and collect services have come in more, people aren’t buying with their eyes, they are buying with a computer now.

“There are times when people are in a shop and they see some fruit and think ‘they look all right I’ll grab one of them’, but that doesn’t happen anymore. “

Mr Morice, who oversees the Innisfail Banana Farming Company, said the drop in tourism and emptier cafes across the state and the country had also contributed.

He said growing environment “had been ideal” with humid conditions between 25C to 30C.

“The effect that Covid has had on cafes and restaurants and those places takes away a little bit of it,” he said.

Australia Banana Farming Company general manager Steve Morice.

“They are probably a number of factors that demand is probably a little bit less than normal.”

It comes as scientists begin a mission to create fruit that smells and looks delicious every time, through a new $7m sensory genetics program.

As part of the five-year project, a team of consumer, sensory and molecular scientists will work to determine exactly what today’s shoppers want in their fruit – across the characteristics of flavour, colour, size, texture and smell.

The initiative is being run by Hort Innovation, and co-funded by the University of Queensland, the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, and Griffith University.

Mr Morice said while growing the perfect fruit every time sounds great “in practice it is much more difficult.”

“Weather conditions play a huge part in how fruit grows and how the product turns out,” he said.

“We can’t control the weather, it controls everything.

“But I’m all for science.”

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Originally published as Innisfail banana grower says online shopping, pandemic affecting sales