Banana shortage strikes New Zealand’s major supermarket chains

Banana bunch

A delayed shipment of bananas from Mexico and Ecuador has left some Countdown supermarkets low on the country's favourite fruit.

A Countdown spokesperson told 1 NEWS that a shipping route change is to blame, putting pressure on how many bananas the supermarket chain has in stock.

"We're currently working on sourcing some additional bananas and apologise to our customers for any inconvenience."

While Countdown couldn’t provide a timeframe on when we can expect the yellow fruit to be back in stock, staff were "working on it as quickly as we can".

Research from Statistics New Zealand reveals that New Zealanders spend more on bananas than any other fruit, getting through 18kg of them every year, or roughly two bananas a week.

A spokesperson for Foodstuffs, the group that operates New World, Pak'nSave, and Four Square, said their stores are also suffering from the delayed shipment.

"Banana supplies are short right now due to unforeseen shipping issues, but the good news is we expect supply to be back to normal by the end of the month," they said.

"We know how much our shoppers love bananas and while we wait for supplies to stabilise, there are some other delicious in-season fruits such as juicy California grapes, NZ navel oranges, NZ apples and Australian Afourer mandarins, that are sure to satisfy shoppers’ fruit fix!"

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