Australian fruit and vegetable prices set to soar
“How much did you pay for the capsicum?” Small talk in the supermarket queue is not too common in this particular upmarket Brisbane enclave but the flood has changed all that. The woman behind me says she has just paid $9.99 a kilogram for hers at a vegetable shop nearby. I say mine was a comparative steal at $6.95 a kilogram. Later, I pay $10 for five bananas and three oranges at a vegetable shop stocked with a consignment of fruit and vegetables from Sydney. “You pay for quality,” the teller assures me when I express horror at the prices. There is worse to come. There are predictions that bananas will reach $15 a kilogram – similar to prices paid after Cyclone Larry devastated banana crops in 2006. There is no evidence of such extremes just yet but the niggling thought that a simple banana will be elevated to grand status is enough to encourage turning one’s garden into an orchard. Prime fruit and vegetable producers supplying SE Queensland were hard hit. In fact, Queensland …
