Asda's Smartprice "lunacy"

Asda has taken banana prices to a new low of 65p a kilo with a pre-pack just launched as part of its re-branded Smartprice range.

It is introducing 11 other fresh-produce and dried-nut lines in the range as part of a new-year health drive at the store. Apart from the bananas, four oranges are on sale for 58p, 500g of tomatoes for 68p and a whole melon for 78p.

But it is the banana price that is probably the most sensitive. It marks almost 40 per cent price deflation since 2000 when bananas were on sale at 108p a kilo. And is a 12 per cent drop on the 74p retail price point for loose bananas in the store.

"It is lunacy," said one banana importer. "The banana market is already rock bottom at 74p so I don't know how they can justify it." The produce on sale this week was from Cameroon and pre-packed in Asda's Smartprice-branded polybag. "The white panels on the packaging mean you can't see the fruit and the pack-weight is printed so near the tie you can't read that either," said another industry observer.

In response, Asda told the Journal the range allows the store to be more flexible with specifications so it can market more of its producers' crop.

The full range includes peppers at 98p for 0.5kg, apples at 61p for 0.9kg, Pears at 84p for 0.9kg, lemons 48p for four, mixed vegetables at 58p for 0.3kg, mixed nuts at 97p for 0.2kg, mushrooms at 52p for 0.25kg, root veg pack (England & Wales only) 0.45p for 1kg and a root veg pack (Scotland only78p for 1.5kg.

Asda expects to unveil a couple more products in February and May and make the offer seasonal with the addition of summer fruit lines in the summer.