Cyclone Yasi to see banana prices stay high till midwinter
SHOPPERS can expect to pay top dollar for bananas until late July, with prices rocketing to $15/kg two months after Cyclone Yasi struck.
SHOPPERS can expect to pay top dollar for bananas until late July at the earliest, with prices skyrocketing to $15/kg two months after Cyclone Yasi destroyed much of the nation's crop.
Analysts predict the price of the fruit will continue to soar into the colder months, potentially pushing prices higher than those paid after Cyclone Larry in 2006, when the banana shortage was felt for nearly a year, The Australian reports.
Category-5 Yasi tore through north Queensland in early February, wiping out 75 per cent of Australia's banana production. Prices have shot up in the past 10 days, after the last of the pre-cyclone and storm-damaged fruit sold out.
Now supermarkets and fruit shops around the country are relying on bananas from northern NSW and the Atherton Tableland in north Queensland, which was unscathed by Yasi.
At Coles and Woolworths last weekend, bananas were being sold for between $11.99 and $12.99/kg, while fruit shops were charging between $6.90 and $14.99/kg.
At the height of the shortage post-Larry, bananas were generally selling for $15/kg.
Sydney Market Reporting Service fruit surveyor Chris Cope said the flood of bananas to urban markets had become a trickle since Yasi struck.
"On New Year's Eve, we broke our record for quantities coming on to the Sydney market with 245,000 cartons of bananas in one week," Mr Cope said. "For the last couple of weeks, we've had 30,000 to 35,000 cartons a week."
"We've gone from very cheap prices before the cyclone - $12-$16 per 13kg box for good bananas, now at $135-$150 per box, and the quality is worse."
Mr Cope said the situation was likely to worsen as winter set in and production dropped even further, but he refused to speculate on how high prices would go.
Prices after Cyclone Larry stayed high for nearly a year, but this time they are expected to gradually decrease from about late July, depending on the weather, as cyclone-affected farms begin picking again.