It might be different for some places but bananas are like 79 cents a bunch, and when you compare that to other fruits like apples and oranges, theyre a good deal
In: 1926
Bananas are a fruit grown from a tropical plant (an herb, more or less) that resembles a tree (although not woody – so technically not a tree).
The plant grows rather fast (12-18) months and produces a fair amount of fruit per acre. The plant is quite hardy. Taking care of a plantation is relatively easy although manually intensive. This is why bananas grown for sales tend to be in lower wage areas. The plants don’t need to be replanted because it naturally produces suckers that will eventually grow into new trunks and fruit.
The fruits are usually picked before they’re ripe and at that stage, they’re pretty hard and therefore transporting bananas is also relatively easy even over long distances. Bananas will ripen even after picked and this process is usually hastened (by gas) during transportation or at the destination point.
All in all, this makes bananas relatively inexpensive to grow and sell. Since it is carbohydrate and nutritionally dense, it is used as a staple food in many regions – demand is therefore also not a problem.
Unlike apples & oranges, you can grow them year-round and *tons* of people grow bananas. Large supply means lower prices.
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And banannas grow in bundles. With one cut youharvest like 50 pieces at once (it is nof just 5 pieces hangig together). So much easer than single growing fruits.
When I worked in the produce dept. for Walmart, we were told that bananas are the number one selling item in the store. I don’t know who of you have seen the banana displays at Walmarts but they are huge. I had to constantly fill bananas during my shift. If I didn’t stay on top of it, I would sometimes have to use 6-8 boxes to refill just half of the display after only a couple hours. We would receive a pallet every day and sure enough, at .59 cents per pound, we would be out by the end of the day.
Sounds like it would be cheaper for me to take a flight to wherever you’re from, buy bananas, and then back to my own country, and I would still save money
One contributing factor is that they transport well. I wrote a big college paper on the energy required to grow and transport Chiquita bananas from growth to TX supermarket and it was under 1 cent / banana. A lot of fruit is crazy expensive to pick / store / transport well.
If you’re an American asking I believe the low price of bananas in the U.S. was paid by the democracy in Guatemala in 1950’s and the ensuing civil war from 1960-1993 that led to the suffering and impoverishment of millions.
Bananas are noice.
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