Friday, June 20, 2008

What about the price of bananas?

Here is one item that hasn't seen a significant increase in prices. The price of bananas from the Birmingham and New Spitalfieds wholesale market has remained remarkably stable since 2005. There was a small speculative surge earlier this year, but more recently, it petered out.

So if you see your supermarket hiking the price of a kilo of the bananas then you know that they are pushing up their margins. Going foward, I suspect we will see retailers using growing inflationary expectations as a cover for pushing up their profit rates. This is one of the unfortunate consequences of inflation.

So, is anyone paying more for their bananas recently? If so, you are being ripped off.
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16 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 20, 2008 at 8:45 AM

    Bananas? I am impressed, where did you get that chart from?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mark WadsworthJune 20, 2008 at 9:10 AM

    That would be even cooler if you had a 100-day moving average; daily turnover in bars along the x-axis and little candlesticks showing tops and bottoms.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RickJune 20, 2008 at 9:40 AM

    Are they bog standard or fair trade?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alice CookJune 20, 2008 at 10:05 AM

    bog standard sold in Birmingham.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Electro-KevinJune 20, 2008 at 11:45 AM

    You know your bananas but do you know your onions ? That is the question.

    I think you do.

    You get linked by E-K today.

    BTW - the House Price Crash blog (linked right) having been predicting a crash for years now.

    ReplyDelete
  6. MarkbaldyJune 20, 2008 at 12:37 PM

    I hope Gordon Brown (Oliver Hardy) or Alistair Darling (Stan Luarel)doesn't see your graph or the doctored CPI will be replaced with the BPI... Banana Price Index.
    No one will get any pay rises then !

    ReplyDelete
  7. Alice CookJune 20, 2008 at 12:40 PM

    electro-kevin,

    I will reciprocate the link as soon as I have time.

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
  8. Alice CookJune 20, 2008 at 12:42 PM

    Mark, no banana inflation, we better keep it quiet, or that is all we will be eating.

    Actually, there was a half-hearted attempt at generating a banana bubble earlier this year (see chart). However, the British public weren't biting. One bubble too many, perhaps?

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
  9. QGJune 20, 2008 at 12:43 PM

    Surely the price of bananas will include costs such as transportation, storage, refrigeration (maybe?) and other logistically related costs. All these things are rising with energy prices.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Alice CookJune 20, 2008 at 12:53 PM

    qg,

    There are wholesale banana prices, recorded at a market in Birmingham by DEFRA. I am sure all your observations are valid, but for some reason, we can't see any inflation in these prices.

    I am as shocked as you are!

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
  11. Electro-KevinJune 20, 2008 at 1:39 PM

    No need to reciprocate, Alice. Mine is a purile little blog with a greater readership than I deserve - I appreciate your saying so anyway.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  12. playdumbJune 20, 2008 at 2:49 PM

    Hi,
    just came back from Tesco, bananas are 67p/kg lowered from 77p/kg! It's been at this level for some 3 weeks now. In fact last year autumn bananas were 85p/kg so in fact prices have gone down at least at the retail level. Or is it a case of bananas being a 'loss leader' in retail speak. Sainsbury's almost always exactly matches the prices. You see I do mind my banana (prices).
    some more banana trivia -

    http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2008/06/the_once_and_future_banana.cfm

    Playdumb

    ReplyDelete
  13. Electro-KevinJune 21, 2008 at 6:06 AM

    Doesn't the cost of transporting bananas factor into it ?

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousJune 21, 2008 at 6:28 AM

    Oh what a lovely bunch of coconuts!

    ReplyDelete
  15. grumpy grannyJune 21, 2008 at 8:06 AM

    Does this chart include the costs and material type of their pyjamas?

    ReplyDelete
  16. shtoveJune 22, 2008 at 1:33 PM

    Bananas blamed for 500% inflation in Alice's blog comments.

    ReplyDelete

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