A century ago Irish people fell in love with bananas. Unlike fruit grown locally, bananas were available year round, which made them particularly attractive. By the 1930s, Irish people ate about two kilos of bananas a year, although at about €4 a kilo in today’s money they cost about 2½ times as much as they do today.
Ireland was not unique, with Germany and the UK also taking bananas to their hearts. By contrast, southern Europe concentrated on native fruit supplies. Today Irish people buy about 17 kilos of bananas a year, as do our neighbours in the UK, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. That’s about 97 average-size bananas a year for every man woman and child. Germany, still a big fan, consumes about 13 kilos of bananas per head.
Since bananas became an important part of our fruit bowls, there have been two major shocks to this market – the second World War, and the European Union single market in 1993.
While some bananas continued to arrive here in 1939 and 1940, supplies dried up for the remainder of the war. Just a tiny amount got through in 1943, but at a prohibitive price. Not surprisingly, the 1920s hit Yes, We Have No Bananas found a new lease of life in Ireland and Britain in the 1940s.
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After the war ended in 1945, while not quite meriting a special reporter, bananas were a regular story in The Irish Times. Already in August 1945 a prominent news item reported that 1,000 tonnes of bananas were on their way to Norway, and hoped for similar shipments to Ireland. However, our first small boatloads did not arrive here till 1946.
By the early 1990s we were buying more than 12 kilos per head, spending about 0.2 per cent of household income on this fruit
In January 1947, this paper reported that a ship from South America was on the way with bananas for Ireland, heralding more significant deliveries over the rest of the year. In early March that year, a story promised that a load of bananas, which were ripening in Dublin, would be ready for St Patrick’s Day.
Because of the pent-up demand, the government introduced a special order limiting the retail price of bananas. It was not really until the early 1950s that banana supplies returned to normal. We were eating more than 2.5 kilos per head again by 1955.
Over time, the real price of bananas fell and, with rising incomes, banana consumption continued to grow. By the early 1990s we were buying more than 12 kilos per head, spending about 0.2 per cent of household income on this fruit.
The EU single market in 1993 ushered in free movement of goods and services within the EU. It also banned EU governments from giving a preference to any goods produced in their own countries over those from other EU members. Thus, the single market was hugely important in starting the Celtic Tiger era in Ireland, allowing us develop high value-added manufacturing such as pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
However, the single market also came at a cost for banana lovers. The UK and France traditionally bought more expensive bananas from their former colonies, whereas Germany and Ireland bought cheap so-called “dollar” bananas from Central and South America. France and the UK pushed through protection across the EU of their ex-colonies’ bananas. This resulted the price of bananas rising by about a half.
Germany, with one in three of the EU’s banana sales, opposed this strongly – the price rise would hit the hausfrau very hard. Though Irish banana lovers also took a hit, Ireland accepted that the benefits of the single market far outweighed this downside.
The Irish Times in February 1993 was once again to the fore in keeping its readers informed. It reported how the upper house of the German parliament, the bundesrat, urged the German government to take legal action to prevent bananas being made more expensive.
However, this opposition did not derail the EU agreement. By 1994, bananas were 50 per cent more expensive in Irish and German shops. Following on the price hike, while there was a temporary drop in consumption in 1994, it did not permanently end the Irish (and German) love affair with the fruit. Today we buy even more bananas than we did in 1994, although I suspect some becomes banana bread, and more ends up in the brown bin.
Monetary policy was temporarily affected by bananas in 1994 – the rise in banana prices added 0.1 percentage points to the already high inflation rate. This helped persuade the bundesbank to keep German interest rates high, which had a knock-on negative effect on Ireland’s economy, and delayed the lift-off of the Celtic Tiger.
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