Trader Joe's upped the price of its bananas for the first time in decades. Here's why

abcnews.go.com:

It may not be too “appeeling,” but the price of some bananas are rising by a few cents

NEW YORK — It may not be too “appeeling,” but the price of some bananas are rising by a few cents.

Trader Joe's recently upped the price for a single banana to 23 cents, a 4-cent — or 21% — increase from the grocer's previous going rate for the fruit that had remained unchanged for over 20 years.

“We only change our prices when our costs change, and after holding our price for Bananas at 19¢ each for more than two decades, we’ve now reached a point where this change is necessary,” a spokesperson for the chain based in Monrovia, California, said.

In contrast to other foods more heavily impacted by inflation, bananas have stayed relatively affordable over time — with average global prices never exceeding more than about 80 cents per pound (0.45 kilograms).

Still, banana prices have seen some jumps in recent years. And it's not just impacting Trader Joe's shoppers.

In the U.S., the cost of a pound of bananas averaged at about 63 cents last month. That's only 3 cents more than it was a decade ago, government data shows, but about 6 cents higher than prices reported at the start of 2020, in the months before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic.

Around the world, banana prices saw their most notable pandemic-era spikes in 2022 — with the global average price per metric ton increasing by more than $520 over the course of that year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, citing International Monetary Fund numbers. Those prices drifted back down some in 2023, but still remain elevated.

“Bananas are a very popular fruit among consumers, so retailers try to keep prices low,” Neil Saunders, managing director at research firm