Even though Canadian grocery prices are quickly going up, bananas are still cheap. According to Statistics Canada, average retail prices for bananas in July 2022 stayed relatively stable. At $1.68 per kilogram, bananas are one of the few fruits that are still affordable for many households.
How can this be? Well, the global market demand has helped keep banana prices stable. Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University: “Bananas are serviced by a highly vertically integrated supply chain, so you have farmers being supported by multinationals.”
Being grown in equator countries like Ecuador, Costa Rica and Asia, bananas don’t have a set growing season and flourish year-round. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, banana figures worldwide have risen dramatically since 2000.
Data from the organization shows banana production grew at a compound annual rate of 3.2 per cent from 2000 to 2017, up from 67 million tons to 114 million tons. Extra supply allows bananas to stay at a consistent price despite other products suffering in volatile markets.
Source: cp24.com