Research conducted by NielsenIQ across 7,000 European consumers shows bananas significantly outperform other fruits in both popularity and consumption frequency, with apples ranking second at 75 per cent
Fyffes has released the results of recent European-wide consumer research which it said confirms ”the popularity of bananas as the consumer’s number one favourite fruit”.
The research, undertaken by NielsenIQ with over 7,000 consumers across Europe, ”shows that bananas continue to be the public’s favourite fruit” with 89 per cent of consumers confirming that they have eaten bananas within the previous four weeks.
Second favourite at 75 per cent is apples, followed in third place by oranges at 56 per cent and in fourth place, grapes at 44 per cent.
“We are thrilled that bananas are the favourite fruit of consumers with the highest household penetration across Europe,” said Adriano Di Dia, chief marketing officer for Fyffes.
”It is testament to a fruit that is tasty, nutritious, convenient and sustainable.
”The research not only confirms banana popularity but also gives us very valuable insights that guide us in the development of marketing strategies and market expansion plans,” Di Dia noted.
”We’re delighted to share it with the sector and our retail partners.”
Another measure in which bananas outranked all other fruits surveyed was under the heading of ‘consumption frequency’.
In this, bananas returned the highest position, out-placing all others under every heading with an ‘at least’ weekly (72 per cent), monthly (95 per cent) and quarterly (98 per cent) consumption figure.
Viewed from a different perspective, this shows that three out of four consumers profess to eating bananas weekly (at least) with nine out of ten doing so monthly.
Another feature revealed in the survey shows that 59 per cent of consumers admitted to ‘not remembering’ the price they had paid for their most recent banana purchase, reducing to 27 per cent who ‘roughly remembered’ and 14 per cent who recalled the ‘exact price’ they had paid.
In all, 13 fruits were surveyed ranked in descending order of consumer choice for consumption in the past six months as follows: bananas (95 per cent), apples (89 per cent), oranges (74 per cent), grapes (74 per cent), berries (71 per cent), pears (64 per cent), melons (60 per cent), lemons (60 per cent), avocados (58 per cent), pineapples (57 per cent), peaches (45 per cent), mangoes (43 per cent), and papayas (10 per cent).
Asked ‘why?’ they consume bananas, survey respondents ranked ’to satisfy my appetite’ highest at 34 per cent, followed by ‘to have a convenient and quick snack’ at 27 per cent and ‘to support my healthy diet’ in third place at 24 per cent.
Other points of interest revealed in the survey show that, for the majority of consumers bananas are a ‘planned in advance’ purchase at 65 per cent upwards.
While a majority of those surveyed prefers to eat their banana when fully ‘ripe yellow’ skinned, 22 per cent preferred bananas that are ’more green than yellow’ at the time of purchase.
Conducted in March 2025, the survey is part of Fyffes ongoing market research programme.
