Going Bananas in Australia!

When friend Teena, now living in Sydney (see the story at Queensland), said in an email that bananas were priced at $14 Australian per kilo (almost $5 U.S./lb!), I thought it was a typo. But no, she insisted, that indeed IS the current price.

Apparently, this is all Larry's fault. He's the cyclone that wiped out the banana plantations when he hit Queensland last March. A C Nielsen has posted an article confirming the price:

Banana-gate: Aussies switch to grapes and apples as banana sales slide in the face of escalating prices

So if you're planning on a trip to Australia in the short term, expect to pay a lot for bananas in the peel. And in smoothies. The Sydney Morning Herald reported this week that at one smoothie bar, the price for two smoothies is $14 Australian.