Going bananas: As Tamil Nadu supplies dry up, prices double to Rs 100/kg
banana have doubled from last week and are hovering around ₹100 per kg, as supplies from Tamil Nadu, the top producer of the fruit, have dwindled. Traders blamed middlemen for the price increase, saying that farmers were not getting the right prices for their produce. On the contrary, apple, the other important fruit in Indian households, may not see any upsurge in prices despite production reducing to about half due to heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
Quality of apples has suffered severely due to the rainfall which will negatively impact the prices, apple growers said. The southern markets are facing the impact of the supply shortage of bananas. In Bengaluru, prices of bananas have touched ₹100 per kg.
Traders said the arrivals of bananas have come down significantly from Tamil Nadu. While the markets were receiving 1,500 quintals of bananas a month ago, it has now come down to 1,000 quintals. BV Patil, president of the Banana Grower Association of India, said at the farmgate level, prices are ₹15 per kg.
«It is the middlemen and transporters who jack up the prices.» During fiscal 2023, India's banana production was estimated to be around 34.9 million tonnes. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Gujarat are the largest banana-producing states in the country. Maharashtra supplies bananas to Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
In Mumbai, prices are showing a northward trend as demand has increased in the ongoing Shravan month. With the upcoming festivals of Onam, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Durga Puja and a bunch of others, demand for bananas will rise further and prices may not come down from the current levels, said traders. Shantanu Meher, owner of Mumbai-based Shantanu Meher & Co, said: «There will be a
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