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Is there a shortage of bananas?

By Sandy C.

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 07: A person shops in Whole Foods Market in the Brooklyn borough on May 7, 2014 in New York City. Whole Foods Market, an upscale grocery store that sells many organic and gourmet foods, has reported disappointing sales and profit outlooks. Shares for the company have dropped as much as 22% today, its biggest decline in years. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 07: A person shops in Whole Foods Market in the Brooklyn borough on May 7, 2014 in New York City. Whole Foods Market, an upscale grocery store that sells many organic and gourmet foods, has reported disappointing sales and profit outlooks. Shares for the company have dropped as much as 22% today, its biggest decline in years. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) /
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Have you been finding it extra tough to find some good bananas in grocery stores? There’s a banana shortage coming, and the reason may surprise you.

Bananas are already difficult to shop for. Not to mention, incredibly annoying. Let’s be honest, it’s just not easy to find a good batch of bananas. Recently, however, bananas are either out at my grocery store or in bad shape. So when I spotted this story on Mashed, it quickly caught my attention.

Instead of venturing inside stores (which has never been fun to do, anyway), I do Grocery Pickup at Walmart. It’s so easy and convenient ordering my groceries online and driving up for the bags to be placed in the trunk.

MORE: Starbucks secret menu: How to order Love on the Rocks for Valentine’s Day

Over the past several weeks, though, bananas have not been available. For select items, I also have a weekly Amazon Fresh delivery set up, and I recently added bananas to my order since Fresh does still have some available.

Why is there a banana shortage?

According to the source, the shortage is coming but COVID-19 is not to blame (for once).  Why? The source shares that BBC’s Follow the Food reports TR4 (“and offshoot of the Panama disease”) has begun to spread on a “pandemic scale.”

Now, this started back years ago, but TRA reportedly reached Colombian soil in 2019, and it hasn’t stopped spreading since.

If it continues as it has, producers will need to shut down and either slow or stop production. Unfortunately, bananas (and most fruit) are not something you can stock up on due to their very short shelf life, so make banana bread while you can!

Next. Godiva Chocolates shuts down all stores: Where can you still find the chocolate?. dark

If the spread continues faster than expected or officially arrives here, we’ll keep you posted! 

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