The price of bananas is expected to skyrocket after Tropical Cyclone Niran caused an estimated $180 million in damage of Far North Queensland’s crops.
Queensland is responsible for approximately 94 per cent of Australia’s banana production, the majority of which is grown in Far North Queensland.
According to the Australian Banana Growers’ Council an estimated 150 farms were damaged by Niran this week.
After Tropical Cyclone Larry and Tropical Cyclone Yasi did significant damage to crops in 2006 and 2011 respectively, the price per kilo jumped by $2.
While Tropical Cyclone Niran didn’t actually touch down in Australia, remaining hundreds of kilometres off the Queensland coast, the weather system associated with it struck hard last week.
Communities along the coast between Cape Melville and Innisfail saw wind gusts of around 100km per hour with areas including Cooktown, Port Douglas, and Cairns feeling the full impact.
It is believed close to half of the 11,000 hectares of banana crops around North Queensland were damaged and the clean-up could take anywhere up to 12 months.
While prices at major supermarkets including Coles and Woolworths haven’t yet been affected by the damage, this is expected to change in coming weeks.
This content first appear on 9news