Some Front Range grocers are experiencing spot shortages of bananas following months of turbulent weather that wreaked havoc on banana farms in Central America and southern Mexico.
While grocers and wholesalers said they have been told the situation will improve by next week, a spokesman for Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands International Inc. said occasional shortages may persist through the first quarter.
So far, the shortages do not appear to have affected retail prices. Bananas at King Soopers stores were priced Wednesday at 49 cents a pound.
“We’re working with customers to meet their volume requirements as best and as fairly as we can across our base,” Chi quita spokesman Michael Mitchell said. “Depending on the week-to-week situation, we anticipate that there may be some shortages for this quarter.”
Hurricane Stan and Tropical Storm Gamma combined to damage banana farms in Honduras, Guatemala and southern Mexico, and unseasonably cool weather in other banana-growing nations resulted in lower-than-usual fruit yields, he said.
King Soopers has posted signs in produce departments apologizing for any inconvenience caused by a shortage of Chiquita bananas. At a King Soopers store in Thornton on Wednesday morning, the sign rested above a stand filled with Dole bananas.
Some King Soopers stores ran out of bananas last weekend, but supplies have improved this week, spokesman Trail Daugherty said.
The company typically gets bananas from both Chiquita and Dole, but “in these kind of situations, you get them where you can,” he said.
Safeway gets its bananas from Del Monte and has not had any supply interruptions, spokesman Jeff Stroh said. A produce-department employee at the SuperTarget in Glendale said the company typically relies on Chiquita for its bananas but has been getting them from other suppliers in the meantime.
“Chiquita is hurting the worst, but everybody is feeling it,” said Lou Daher, senior merchandising manager at wholesale fruit supplier Freshpoint of Denver.
The company provides wholesale produce to restaurant and food-service customers, and it has been receiving banana allocations in quantities lower than it ordered, he said.
As for the prices, retailers seem to be absorbing costs, said Dave Maynard, general manager of produce wholesaler Freshpak in Denver.
“They don’t want to make the customers pay for something that may only last a few weeks,” he said.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
Yes, we have bananas
Hurricane Stan, Tropical Storm Gamma and unseasonably cool weather in some banana-growing nations resulted in lower-than-usual fruit yields. The weather affected Chiquita’s banana supplies, but retailers that commonly stock Chiquita have obtained the fruit from other sources. The shortages don’t appear to have affected prices, which were 49 cents a pound at King Soopers on Wednesday.
