The banana price wars are back, after Asda this morning cut the price of 1kg of loose bananas from 68p to 58p.

The new price is the lowest cost for a kilo of bananas in the mults for almost a year. The last time bananas were on sale for less than 60p/kg was during the week of 12 November 2010, when Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons were selling the benchmark fruit at 55p/kg [BrandView.co.uk].

Asda’s move on comes in the week that arch rival Tesco debuted its Big Price Drop and represents the latest episode in an ongoing tussle over bananas that has run for more than a year.

In April, Asda lowered its price from 77p/kg to 68p/kg, having previously led moves to lower the price to 55p/kg in the wake of a raft of price reductions on staples last summer.  

The supermarket’s price cuts were swiftly followed by the other mults but, at present, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Waitrose are all still selling at 68p/kg.

Read more
Tesco wages £500m Price Drop campaign (23 September 2011)
Asda is set to trigger a new banana war (2 April 2011)
Tesco slashes price of milk and bananas (5 February 2011)