Shoppers benefit as prices fail to go bananas
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday March 12, 2011
WHENEVER there is bad weather in NSW and Queensland, bananas are the benchmark of how grocery bills will rise.Six weeks after cyclone Yasi and after summer flooding across the eastern seaboard, bananas did not fare as badly as expected and prices have hovered around $6 a kilogram.Since the devastation of cyclone Larry in 2006 producers have become more savvy about planting and harvesting. Many cut unripe fruit before Yasi hit in order to salvage some of their crops and limit the damage to the trees. Some of the fruit can ripen off the tree, and the lesser quality produce is sold to factories that make banana bread, says fruit-shop owner Jeff Davies.Mr Davies, who runs The Local Fruitologist at Green Point on the Central Coast, buys his bananas only from northern NSW so his supply was unaffected by Queensland's weather conditions."I always buy all my bananas from Coffs [Harbour]. They're not picture perfect like they are in Queensland but they taste better," he says.Queensland produces 90 per cent of Australian bananas, the rest coming from Coffs Harbour.Prices of bananas are still expected to rise as stock drops - they have gone up to $10 a kilogram this week - but will not reach the $15 a kilogram peak they did after Larry, says Tristan Harris, from Harris Farm Markets."They planted significant acreage north of Cairns ... which suffered very little crop loss. All of the southern farmers are much better at preparing and dealing with the cyclones. They had better techniques for determining what to do when the cyclone was coming."The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences estimates that losses to agricultural production and exports were $2.3 billion in 2010-11; the areas most affected being production of cereals, sugar, fruit and vegetables, cotton and grain sorghum.Not all farmers were able to plan for extreme weather quite so successfully and crops in some states suffered crippling effects. Humidity and rain over spring and summer damaged sugar cane and mangoes in Queensland, strawberries in Victoria and cherries in Victoria and Tasmania. Chinese vegetables grown around the Sydney basin were burnt by 40 degree heat, while those in Victoria suffered similar temperatures and also rain.A spokesman for the industry body Ausveg, Hugh Tobin, said humidity had affected produce before the flooding, causing disease and marking some crops."Consumers may have noticed marks they wouldn't normally see. Retailers have relaxed their quality, but ... the marked product that we saw in the recent weeks has cycled through stores and leading retailers are reporting that they are selling unmarked produce again."Growers and industry bodies appealed to the public after Yasi to accept blemished produce that would not normally appear on grocery shelves. But Mr Harris and Mr Davies say they did not buy anything that compromised their standards, even if it meant missing out on some lines or stocking less of one variety."The quality is pretty good," said Mr Harris, who oversees produce at the company's 22 stores across NSW. But Mr Davies said prices would still fluctuate as continuing wet weather will affect produce yet to hit the shelves.Apples and plums came in later than usual and cauliflower, cabbage and parsley are scarce.One crop that Mr Davies says appeared to benefit from the extra water was sweet potatoes, which are hydroponically grown in Bundaberg and Tweed Heads. "When the water receded there were football fields of them."The vegetables had grown to massive proportions but they had black marks through the middle and had to be sold cheaply.Says Mr Tobin of Ausveg: "When there's shortages of crops such as pumpkin, potatoes, sweet potato, it comes in from other regions. Growers from NSW were meeting the supply issues in other states."Fears that damage to crops would herald a rise in imports have not been realised. Colin Gray, chief executive of the NSW Chamber of Fruit and Vegetable Industries, said imports accounted for less than 5 per cent of what Australians consumed and "most of that comes frozen or in a can".Ultimately all the retailers say the best option is to select produce in season and buy it fresh.Mr Gray says he has not seen evidence of marked fruit at the shops, and that prices were not unusually high."There's plenty of choice out there and my advice to a consumer is go in there, have a look at what's around. If perhaps your favourite vegetable is a bit dear or you're not happy with it, pick something else."
© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald