This is a final research report from Hort Innovation’s historical archives. Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.

What was it all about?

Bananas were the number one selling line in Australian supermarkets at the time and as such were used by major retailers to both drive foot traffic through their stores but also to drive the overall profitability of their fresh produce departments. At the time there was no clear correlation between wholesale banana prices and supermarket retail prices leaving producers with no clear market signals.

This created uncertainty at the producer level about the true state of consumer demand which may have resulted in supply fluctuations which were greater and more frequent than might be the case where clear market signals were available.

This project was implemented to collect and report on banana retail prices in order to create the required link between wholesale banana prices and supermarket retail prices.

During the life of this project (41 months) banana retail price and display information had been collected and reported on a weekly basis. The information was collected every Monday by surveyors in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth from a range of stores including the major supermarkets, independent supermarkets and independent grocers.

The information collected included assessment date, store name and location, variety, pack type, size/weight of fruit, display type, price, in store location, whether the fruit was on special and country of origin. The aggregated results by capital city were reported in a graphical format on a weekly basis on the ABGC website: (http://www.abgc.org.au/?industry/consignments/market).