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Mexican banana growers await word on Trump tariffs

Banana growers and shippers are paying close attention to the potential 25 percent tariffs president Donald Trump is threatening to impose on goods from both Mexico and Canada. "We're a producer in Mexico and we do have third-party fruit that we source from Guatemala," says Andy Thomas-Stivalet of Kavidac Produce."If the tariffs come through, only the Mexican fruit is going to be tariffed and the rest of the world's bananas won't be so that puts us at a disadvantage. A 25 percent tariff on bananas is a huge amount."

Though if they were implemented, Thomas-Stivalet says banana sourcing for the U.S. could shift to other regions, depending on how long the tariffs stay in place because while clients may accept a price increase, they're only likely to do so temporarily. "The benefits we have in sourcing from Mexico is we're fresher, we have better quality fruit and we arrive in the market sooner than everybody else," says Thomas-Stivalet, adding that Mexican bananas are also larger in size with better sugars.

Low supply will continue
As for the supply of bananas right now, this is the low point of the banana season. "The winter starts hitting in the tropics and right before the holidays, most producers will precut their fruit and that leaves less fruit for them to harvest during this period," says Thomas-Stivalet, adding that the next four to five weeks, low volumes of bananas will continue from all growing regions including Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador and more.

Meanwhile, banana pricing right now is high on the spot market (sometimes as much as 20-30 percent higher than contract prices) because supply is shorter and many are in search of fruit. However, the consumption of bananas has strengthened too, more than expected in fact.

"Most stores are selling a lot of bananas. Usually, there's a lull in the holiday season with kids out of school though it always picks up once the kids go back to school and people resume their normal habits," says Thomas-Stivalet. "It seems like this year there's been an increase in the amount of bananas being sold and that might be partly due to the fact that the price of bananas hasn't increased this year and the contracts for next year seem to be very stable. I don't see banana pricing increasing in 2025 so it will be a more attractive item in the supermarket."

For more information:
Andy Thomas-Stivalet
Kavidac Produce
Tel: (+52) 962-625-3303
Sales@kavidac.com
https://www.kavidac.com/