Banana price will remain firm during harvest, TNAU

Bananas will arrive from Pudukkottai, Namakkal, Theni, Trichy, Salem to the local markets. The demand for banana is high in Trichy, Tirunelveli, Cuddalore, Theni and Coimbatore. It is expected that the price of banana will decline due to huge arrivals and on the other side, the demand for banana will rise due to the upcoming festivals. Hence, the selling price of this fruit is expected to remain stable this season, despite the demand due to festival.

The Price Forecasting Scheme of Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development Studies (CARDS), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has analyzed the 15 year’s monthly prices of cultivars of Poovan, Karpooravalli and eight year’s monthly prices of Nendhran banana of Coimbatore.

The result of the analysis and traders survey indicated that all the cultivars such as Poovan, Karpooravalli and Nendhran prices will be stable in November – December 2016 and the expected average farm gate price would be Rs.13 - 15 Per kg for Poovan Rs. 18 - 20 for Karpooravalli and Rs.35 - 38 per kg for Nendhran in Coimbatore market. Hence farmers are advised to be aware of the prevailing market prices before harvesting their produce.

According to the Second Advance Estimate of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Banana is cultivated in an area of 1.13 lakh hectares. About 33.82 lakh tonnes of banana were produced in India during 2015-2016. The Major Banana growing states are Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. In Tamil Nadu, major banana growing districts are Coimbatore, Theni, Trichy, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Kanyakumari.

Most of India’s banana production is meant for domestic consumption. India produces 30 per cent of the world’s banana, but export is negligible at less than one per cent. The top export destinations are Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE and Kuwait and the preferred variety for export is Grand Naine.