Americas Favorite Fruit Is Being Bruised by the Iran War

The war in Iran has rippled through the global economy in many ways, pushing up prices for oil, fertilizer and other products.It has also created challenges for America’s most popular fruit: bananas.The banana business has long been an underappreciated feat of logistics.

It involves transporting a fragile and finicky fruit thousands of miles from the tropics, only to be sold for less than a quarter each.And it’s a business that is even trickier of late as the war raises the costs of fuel and other materials banana producers need.That has put even more financial pressure on banana producers, who operate with thin margins and have little ability to raise prices.

Compounding the industry’s problems are the threat of disease, climate change, tariffs and an exceptionally severe El Niño this year.The banana might be America’s most unassuming fruit, a cheaply priced staple of smoothies and school cafeterias.It is the most consumed fruit in the United States, with Americans eating around 80 bananas a year, on average.But bananas make little profit for grocery stores or the companies growing them.

Instead, stores price them cheaply to draw shoppers in the door.The average price of bananas in the United States — about 65 cents a pound in August — has changed little over the last decade, despite rising costs.“Everything is costing more money,” said Danny Dumas, a senior vice president at Del Monte North America.

“If you ask me, it is a crisis.”...