The prices paid by consumers for bananas from the Canary Islands plummeted at the end of 2022. The average PVP of the banana has been falling since August, a month in which it peaked (€3.29/kilo average price in the peninsula). It currently has reached its lowest point. Specifically, consumer prices are currently set at €2.05 per kilo on average. That is 18% lower than in the same month of 2022.
The loss of more than 70 million kilograms of production due to the volcanic eruption in La Palma in 2021 strained the banana market for much of 2022. However, since part of the production that was lost was recovered very quickly because the temperatures in the last quarter of 2022 were higher than usual, there was a significant fall in prices.
It's been an unbalanced fall, as it mainly affects producers. The lack of agility in the transfer of the reduction of prices at source to consumer prices is generating heavy losses for producers.
The price of bananas from the Canary Islands has decreased by 35% from its highest point in mid-2022 while food prices, in general, are expected to continue to increase at the beginning of the year.
According to Domingo Martin, president of ASPROCAN (Association of Organization of Banana Producers of the Canary Islands), “the loss of production caused by the eruption of La Palma and the high prices derived from it led to a loss of market share in 2022 that benefited bananas, which also benefited from the expansion of demand that we had been achieving in recent years. The price at the point of sale only began to fall at the end of the year, even though producers were already being paid a substantially lower price months earlier. It is imperative that price changes at source are passed on to the consumer quickly and with more reasonable margins for all links in the chain.”
For more information:
Asprocan
https://platanodecanarias.es