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Banana prices to go up as global temperature increases

Top experts say that bananas are likely to become more expensive as climate change and increased temperatures affect supply chains.

Bad news for banana lovers this week.

Pascal Liu, senior economist at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, has said that climate change is an ‘enormous threat’ to banana supplies. It will also intensify problems caused by fast-spreading diseases and fruit availability.

The World Banana Forum is to meet next week to discuss the problem and consider potential solutions.

Just last week, the UK experienced a brief outage of bananas due to sea storms. The fruit is particularly popular there, with over 5 billion imported every year and 90% sold through major supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, and Aldi.

What’s causing the problem specifically? Bananas are sensitive to temperature rises more than other produce, which means that crops could be wiped out in areas that become too hot over the next few decades.

A warmer world also means a faster spread of diseases. One causing particular concern currently is Fusarium Wilt TR4, a fungal infection. It has moved from Australia and Asia to Africa. It is now in South America. Once a plantation becomes infected, all banana trees are killed and experts say it’s very hard to get rid of permanently.

In addition, producers are facing increased fertilisers costs, alongside energy and transport. Finding a sufficient amount of workers is also a challenge in of itself.

Talks in Rome will be focused on sustainable growing and selling of bananas, as well as the anticipated price hike. As Gen Zers continue to enter the adult consumer market, the demand for more environmentally responsible produce grows.

However, this has extra costs. Growers must pay for independent examiners to certify that their fruit is sustainable, further adding to the consumer price at checkout.

Unfortunately, as the climate crisis deepens and countries around the world delay any form of tangible action, more knock-on effects for regular people will be felt, both financially and logistically. We should expect further price increases on many other foods, especially fruits and vegetables.

Bananas are likely just the beginning. Better get making that banana bread while you can, eh? It’ll cost a pretty penny per slice before long.

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