Yellow fruit is the top banana among consumer purchases

Who is number one?

Bananas, the well-loved yellow tropical fruit that tops per-capita consumption charts, again receives top billing in 2022.

Sixty-three percent, or more than 1,000 consumers surveyed in The Packer’s 2022 Fresh Trends research, said they purchased fresh bananas in the previous 12 months, the top among all produce commodities.

Per-capita retail availability of bananas topped 27 pounds in 2019, compared with 16.8 pounds for apples and 24 pounds for all citrus varieties.

Variables

The influence of income was not strong with banana purchases, according to Fresh Trends data, with 62% of those earning less than $25K reporting banana purchases. That was nearly the same as the 63% earning more than $100K, according to Fresh Trends.

One area of divergence for fresh banana purchases was gender.

Seventy percent of female consumers reported purchasing in the previous 12 months, compared with only 55% of males.

Somewhat surprisingly, shoppers with no kids purchased bananas (67%) more frequently than shoppers with kids (58%). 

Shoppers in the Midwest reported more banana purchases (71%), compared with the Northeast (63%), South (60%) and West (60%).

One area of divergence in purchases is the age of shoppers, Fresh Trends reports. Older consumers, by far, were the best users of bananas, with the percentage of shoppers reporting purchases lowest in the youngest age bracket. 

Seventy-six percent of consumers over age 60 reported purchases of bananas, compared with 73% for those 50 to 59, 66% for those 40 to 49, 49% for those 30 to 39, and just 48% for the 18 to 29 age group.

By ethnic background, 66% of consumers who identified as white or Asian reported fresh banana purchases in the past 12 months, compared with 54% of both Black and Hispanic consumers polled.