Say ‘hello’ to bananas on 27 September

Supplies of high quality Australian Bananas from Far North Queensland will increase from the end of September bringing to an end months of pain for banana consumers and growers following the devastation of Cyclone Yasi.

To mark the return of Australia’s favourite fruit, banana grower and consumer adviser, Steve Lizzio is donating a pallet of his first bananas from his Liverpool River farm to Banana Bounceback, a public auction in Sydney’s Martin Place at 8:00am on Tuesday 27 September.

Proceeds from the auction will be donated to the McGrath Foundation. As part of Banana Bounceback, banana snapping Guinness world record holder Graheme Celledoni will attempt to break his record. Graheme is a banana grower from far north Queensland who lost his crop in the cyclone.

Since the cyclone struck last February wiping out fruit in Australia’s key banana growing district, Steve Lizzio has been posting videos on YouTube to inform consumers of the regrowth process. He selected one of his trees as being typical of where the industry was up to throughout the regrowth process and aptly named the tree Isay (Yasi backwards).

Added to the pallet of bananas will be the fruit from Isay which will form a special part of the auction.

The return of greater volumes of fruit will also put downward pressure on prices and allow families to put bananas back onto their shopping lists without breaking the budget.

Banana Marketing Manager at Horticulture Australia Limited, David Weisz says, “The post-Yasi period has been extremely difficult for banana growers and consumers alike. The growers and their employees have been without income while plantations recovered, and consumers have gone without the fruit that is the number one selling fruit in Australia and among the top ten supermarket items. “This auction event gives the industry an opportunity to tell all Australians that their wait for bananas to come back both in number and in price is starting to improve. That makes it a real celebration. It means the end of a long and tough period for growers, as well as an opportunity for them to say ‘thank you’ to consumers for their patience,” he says.

Steve Lizzio’s latest video release is live today at http://www.youtube.com/user/AustralianBananas?ob=5