Poor harvest affects price of bananas

Poor harvest affects price of bananas

PETALING JAYA - Pisang goreng seller Adeline Liew said the price of pisang raja, which is used to make the popular banana fritters, had risen by some 50 sen (S$0.20) a kilo since late last year.

To make up for the cost, she has raised the price of her pisang goreng by 10 sen a piece.

"I was told that farmers had a poor harvest due to a disease that attacked banana trees last year," said Liew at her stall in Sea Park here.

Fruit vendor Owen Tong said the market price for several fruit, especially papaya and dragon fruit, had also gone up recently.

He said the retail price for dragon fruit was RM10 (S$3.8) per kilo - RM1 more compared to January - while papaya was priced at RM3 per kilo.

"But for now, I'm absorbing the extra and still selling my papaya at RM2.50 to keep my regular customers.

"If the (ex-farm) price doesn't go down, I will have to increase my prices soon," he said, adding that the price for banana varieties such as emas, rastali and berangan was RM4.50 now.

However, the price for local mangoes had gone down as it was facing stiff competition from Thai mangoes.

Another vendor in Section 14, who declined to be named, admitted that it had been hard to find local guava and starfruit recently, though she claimed she had no idea why.

"I sell whatever I can get from wholesalers," she added.

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