Banana bender for everybody
FOR a while, Aussie families have almost needed to take out a second mortgage to be able to afford them.
But the humble banana is set to make a comeback to lunchboxes across the Coast, with predictions of a dramatic price drop before Christmas.
At one stage, you could not get decent bananas for under $15 a kilo after Cyclone Yasi destroyed crops in the peak growing areas of Innisfail and Cardwell in early February.
Banana smoothies and banana splits became long-forgotten luxuries and any kid with a banana in his lunchbox was suddenly posh.
But all that will change in just a few weeks when banana lovers will once again be able to fill the shopping trolley with yummy yellow treats for as little as 99c a kg.
Warana Fruit Shed produce manager John Clinch said the arrival of peak banana growing season should bring smiles back to sad little Aussie faces.
"As long as the weather is okay and there are no more cyclones, they should be back to somewhere between 99c and $1.99 in November," he said.
"Things will be back to normal.
"You can get some cheap and inferior stuff at the moment but good bananas are still around the $9.99 mark and the really good stuff is a bit dearer."
Mr Clinch said he expected Coast families would welcome the price drop after seven months of being forced to go without.
"People would come in, look at the bananas and say 'oh, they are still very dear' and then they'd ask me when the price would come down.
"I'd tell them probably some time in November or by Christmas and they'd usually say 'I'll wait until then'.
"Normally, we would have gone through 20 or 30 cartons of them every two days but lately it's only been four cartons every couple of days."
