Is everything really getting more expensive? Not if you're talking about the fresh produce sector. According to numbers from CBS, retail prices for bananas, mushrooms and cucumbers fell even further last year. These products reached the lowest price level of the century.
Source: CBS
Bananas
Jumbo and Albert Heijn went head to head last year by each trying to provide the lowest price for bananas. The result: an average price of 1.50 Euro for the consumer. The rise in banana prices, which has been happening since 2006, was disrupted. This resulted in the lowest banana prices since the beginning of the study, in 2000.
Cucumbers
Consumers did not have to dig deep into their pockets for cucumbers either. With an average price of 0.59 Euro cents cucumbers are cheaper than ever. Even in the 2011 EHEC year cucumbers were getting a better price: 0.64 Euro cents. The most expensive cucumbers were sold in 2002 and 2007; during these years they were selling for 0.91 Euro cents.
Mushrooms
Mushrooms
For ten years mushroom prices have been reasonably stable, at 0.90 Euro cents. Last year mushroom prices fell considerably. Consumers paid only 0.79 Euro cents for the product. This is much less than what was paid for this product in the last 15 years. Previously, the lowest price was 0.88 Euro cents in 2006. Mushrooms were the most expensive in 2002: selling for 0.98 Euro cents.
Potatoes
Potatoes
Potato prices are the most unstable of all four products. For example: in 2005 potatoes were going for 0.58 Euro cents, in 2013 they were going for 1.03 Euro, a record high. In 2014 the price was at 0.94 Euro cents, higher than the 15 year average of 0.80 Euro cents.
