Who would want to be in the banana business these days? A once profitable and vibrant industry is slowly being driven into the ground by retailers hell-bent on squeezing every last drop of value out of the sector.
“Lunacy” was the cry last week, and I hate to say it, but how else can you describe the kind of actions which have seen the banana price fall from 108p a kilo in 2000 to this incredible low of 64p a kilo today.
Bananas remain the UK’s number one fruit with consumers, and they reached that position regardless of price. In terms of volume they remain, unchallenged, in pole position. But value, well, that’s another story. The retailer obsession with price has seen the fruit overtaken by apples and the way things are going, it wouldn’t surprise me if the blueberry category ended up being worth more than bananas.
The retailers deny a price war and Asda has claimed it is not hurting anybody by dropping its prices. It has simply managed to make the savings through efficiency and retail cleverness. But let’s be realistic here, how can you make a saving of 40 per cent simply by being efficient? And if that is the case, why has it taken until now for the retailers to make those savings?
The retailers claim the economy offer on bananas will attract new people into the category. The fact that the UK is already one of the highest consumer of bananas in Europe doesn’t seem to enter into it - most people, even those on a budget, are already eating bananas.
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