The reason why we don't import bananas from the Philippines or Indonesia is a little thing called Black Spot. If that got into our banana crop, that'd be the end of it because our bananas aren't black spot resistant. Our industry would be in huge trouble and would most likely collapse. Black spot basically wrecks bananas...first it makes them unappealing with lots of black spots and then turns the fruit into a stinking mush.
Then you'd be paying even more for your bananas than what you are at present. Why, because the big retailers would take advantage of the fact they're being imported and whack a premium on their price and the government wouldn't do a thing about it. Even though there's an acute shortage of bananas, the only people you can blame for the prices is the big retailers trying to rip the consumers off by inflating the prices to ridiculous levels.
Just be glad that the farmers managed to survive the storm and can regrow their crop.
Just had 5 years in Zambia. We were paying 50 kwacha per banana... 5000 kwacha to one aussie dollar... so 1 cent per banana!!! Mind you, we were in rural Zambia. In town it was five times that much!!
I am sure many of my friends would not believe me if I told them the prices we pay for bananas and mangoes! Mangoes were so plentiful in december that they rotted on the ground!!
