In 2015, the brand Plátano de Canarias increased its market share in Spain by 11%, reaching 72.10%, according to data provided by the Food Consumption Panel of the consultancy firm Kantar, an official source of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
The president of the Association of Canary Banana Producer Organisations (Asprocan), Santiago Rodríguez, made a statement assessing the development achieved by the crop in 2015, which "confirms the upward trend" recorded in recent years, as the market share has grown from 61.13% in 2013 to 64.63% in 2014 and to 72.10% last year.
In his opinion, these gradual increases "confirm the appreciation from consumers" for the quality of Canary bananas. Rodríguez noted that this increase was accompanied by a 4.5% rise in the export volume compared to 2014, reaching 347.6 million kilos. This figure, he added, represented 72 percent of the total volume of bananas consumed in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands, which reached 481,500 tonnes.
Low prices at origin
The President of Asprocan adds that, although these results demonstrate the strength of demand and the preference of Spanish consumers for Canary bananas, "the sector cannot be fully satisfied, because there has also been a very negative development of the prices paid to the growers."
In this regard, he notes that, in 2015, the average price of Canary bananas intended for ripening, distribution and sale in mainland Spain stood at 0.75 Euro per kilo, which is 8% less than in 2014, when prices at origin reached 0.81 Euro per kilo.
In his view, this trend continues to put pressure on the Canary banana sector, because the average price, in combination with the aid granted to producers, was not enough, in many cases, to "cover the production and marketing costs," thus pushing the sector "to the limit."
This fact, he says, contrasts with the average price of retail bananas, which according to data obtained by Asprocan's tracking services on large retailers in the Peninsula, reached an annual average of 1.76 Euro per kilo in 2015.
