Banana prices are currently so high that the buyers for school feeding schemes have stopped buying bananas, says Thomas van Tonder, an Exec-U-Fruit market agent at the Johannesburg municipal market for fresh produce. Exec-U-Fruit was founded in 1998 by Carlos Dos Ramos, Gavin Cos and Nelson Gomes, today the third largest fruit agency in the Johannesburg market.
Bananas from Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), the hub of banana production in Southern Africa says Thomas van Tonder of Exec-U-fruit
Informal traders also struggle to keep up with prices of over R200 (10.5 euros) for small, second grade bananas; fruit that is usually sold on the farm to the 'bakkiesmouse' (small-scale traders) is now packaged and sent to the municipal markets where it sells for "phenomenal" prices.
Bananas are important to the diet of South Africans who grew up with it as an abundant food. "Years ago bananas used to be the cheapest product on the market. When I started here in 1992, it sold for R20 [1.05 euro], R30 for a box, which was 20 kg back then."
Now, extra-large bananas attain R300 (15.8 euros) and over per 18kg carton in Gauteng. In the Cape it will be more expensive as markets closest to banana production areas - those in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal - get preference.
Retailers pay these prices because they have no choice.
The current high banana price is no spike, he points out. Last year it also reached R300 for a brief while, but this year's duration of these price levels is remarkable. "The industry has changed a lot over the years," he remarks, "and bananas have become more like a niche market."
Bananas sold at the Tshiamo Market, City Deep
Recordbreaker Cyclone Freddy and the July 2024 freeze
Twenty months after Tropical Cyclone Freddy, whose 36 days of duration was declared by the World Meteorological Organization to make it the longest-lasting tropical cyclone on record, zigzagged between Madagascar and Southern Africa, banana fields are still recovering. The damage extended to Komatipoort, northeastern Mpumalanga but it was worst in Mozambican banana fields.
Then came the black frost of July 2024, damaging banana fields particularly in Levubu and Tzaneen, and the result is few bananas, of which many stopped lengthening but still ripened, necessitating an early harvest of the small fruit.
The impact of this cold snap will probably affect next year's avocado crop, Van Tonder says, as well as the upcoming mango season (although, he remarks, mango farmers tend to predict a short crop every year).
Ripening constraints drag down quality, hence price
Bananas will become more plentiful only by March next year. He doesn't expect the banana glut of two years ago to be repeated.
Plentiful bananas come with the pinch of too few banana ripening chambers at municipal markets across the country, he says, pointing to the age of the ripening rooms at the Johannesburg market, where he works: half of the number they require, and a few are out of order, he says.
Banana ripening chambers at the Joburg Market
"Remember, this is an abnormal year. Last year we had far too little space in the ripening chambers for our bananas and it affects the price: product stands outside, and if it's 30°C then the bananas also become 30°C. When space becomes available you slowly stabilize it to 14°C and it adds four or five days to the process."
Meanwhile, he says, consumers are sold bananas with a compromised cold chain and hence, shorter shelf life and more bananas get thrown away.
Besides bananas, Exec-U-Fruit offers strawberries, blueberries, watermelons, apples. The agency holds 100% of the market's shares in pineapples.
For more information:
Thomas van Tonder
Exec-U-Fruit
Tel: +27 11 613 6101
Email: [email protected]
https://www.facebook.com/ExecufruitAgents/