Asda sparks banana price war |
| Industry News | |
| Monday, 05 October 2009 | |
 Asda has sparked a supermarket price war by cutting the price of bananas to their lowest level in 14 years. Asda said it had guaranteed the price cuts would not be passed on to suppliers and urged rival supermarkets, who have been forced to reduce their own prices, to do the same. There is concern that consumers will come to expect the rock-bottom prices and the cost will be passed on to growers in developing countries. The latest cuts mean Asda, which sells two million kilograms of bananas every week, charges 46p/kg for loose bananas. On 25 August the price was 84p/kg. Alex Brown, Asda's produce director, said: "Our job is to do all we can to help cut the cost of living for families across the UK and there's no better way of doing that than by lowering prices on core staples that go into millions of shopping trolleys every week. "We're footing the bill so can guarantee the move won't have any impact on the price we pay our suppliers, and any other retailer following our lead should make that same commitment." Rival supermarkets have expressed concern over having to absorb millions of pounds in discounting. The move flies in the face of calls from importers for supermarkets to raise the price to £1.20/kg to ensure the industry remains profitable and can invest in facilities.
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