Dearer bananas as Fyffes profits sink

Fyffes, Europe's second largest banana importer, today admitted it is pushing up prices for its tropical fruit after pre-tax slumped 28.8% in the first half of the year to 13.3 million.

The Irish-based company blamed higher fuel costs, the weaker euro and bad weather at the start of the year, which meant consumers stayed away from supermarkets in western Europe and open-air markets on the east of the continent.

Fyffes also said it forced to slash prices because it suffered from an excess of supply as it could not ship some of its bananas to Russia by sea because of unexpectedly frozen waters in the Baltics.

Chairman David McCann said trading conditions have returned to normal during the summer and the group should still hit its full-year profit targets after putting up prices and slashing costs.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the average retail price of a kilo of bananas rose from 95p in January to 109p in June.

While Fyffes struggled with bananas, its smaller operations in other tropical fruit held up better.

Profits in the pineapples division were flat on a year earlier while US winter melon was up.
Shares in Fyffes today rose 0.01 to 0.34.