Tonnes of bananas are being left to rot on farms in Australia’s main growing areas around Innisfail and Tully in the country’s Far North as poor prices for the commodity have made picking and packing the fruit unfeasible for some growers.
Cassowary Coast Banana Growers Association president Mark Nucifora told Australian website Cairns.com that some growers were also being forced to sell off assets while others were looking to exit the industry altogether.
“The industry is facing one of its biggest challenges since cyclone Larry,” said Mr Nucifora. “The market is flooded and it will not get better over the holiday period – there is a huge range of other products available, like mangoes and other stone fruit. “No one knows when, or if things are going to get better.”
According to the Australian Banana Growers Council around 90 per cent of the country’s bananas are grown in the Far North, with the industry contributing A$380m to the local economy.
Low prices were being attributed to a glut of bananas last year, which resulted from a warm winter.
The owner of Fresh Yellow Banana, Tony Camuglia, told the website only 30 per cent of the area’s crop was being bought by retailers.
“They are not taking the bigger XXL fruit form the top of the bunch, or the smaller fruit at the bottom, just the perfect-sized bananas from the middle,” he said. "The rest is getting turned into mulch because there is no demand. “We’re not talking inferior fruit, this is about A1 grade fruit that is normally sold being wasted."
Currently around 600,000 cartons of bananas flood the Australian market each week, around 150,000 cartons more than are needed.
