Choosing pre-packs as the banana battleground is skewing figures to show a 36 per cent growth rate in the market segment, while loose banana sales are dropping, according to data from analyst TNS. Overall in the four weeks to the end of January, banana sales were up seven per cent year on year, TNS’s figures show.
The long-term cost to the industry is, however, yet to be quantified.
Tesco took prices on its Value offer to a new low of 59p a kilo last Thursday, as reported first on freshinfo. None of the other retailers has yet followed suit.
Market leader Tesco is offering a 1.5kg bag of bananas under its economy brand for 89p.
A fresh round of price cuts on the UK’s most popular fruit was sparked last month when Asda launched its Smartprice economy offer into the fruit sector, selling pre-pack bananas for 65p a kilo.
Tesco has now raised the stakes, a move has been seen as a direct attack on Morrisons as the Bradford-based retailer’s banana offer mainly competes against Tesco’s Value range, while for Tesco, the range makes up only a small percentage of its sales.
As the fruit suffers from 40 per cent price deflation since 2000, detractors of the price-cutting strategy claim no-one in the banana supply chain is making any money.
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