Many banana production areas in China have recently reported a shortage of delivery trucks. The transportation costs increased as a result of this shortage. For example, the cost of banana transport from Yunnan production areas to markets in north China broke the previous record of 30 thousand yuan [4,299 USD]. The high cost of transport quickly led to a decline in orders for bananas.
The prices in production areas were still relatively stable on February 12th. The price of premium bananas in some production areas that are not affected by winter cold, such as Laos, is extremely high. In some cases the banana price is more than 5 yuan [0.72 USD] per kg. Top-quality bananas in Yunnan production areas cost around 3 yuan [0.43 USD] per kg, while mediocre bananas sell for around 2.4-2.8 yuan [0.34-0.40 USD] per kg. In Guangxi production areas the bananas cost around 4 yuan [0.57 USD] per kg. In Guangdong the price of bananas is around 1.8-2.2 yuan [0.26-0.32 USD] per kg.
The conditions in Yunnan have been the most stable among all the banana production areas in the last few days, but even there the downward trend is obvious. Delivery trucks are in short supply and this leads to rising transportation costs. This greatly affects the enthusiasm of traders to place banana orders. In addition, there are still places like Jiangcheng, Mengla, Jinping, and Hekou, where the roads are completely blocked and transport is near impossible.
Source: ncw365.com