Top banana: Fyffes hikes profit target after raising fruit prices

Investors went bananas for Fyffes today as the fruit distributor raised its profit forecast after getting buyers to fork out more for bananas and pineapples.

London-listed shares rose 6.84p or 8% to 92.3p when Fyffes revealed no let-up in shoppers despite higher prices because of the strong dollar and weak euro.

Its profits have also been helped by strong melon imports to the US, which is the Irish company’s largest market. The average American eats 27 pounds of melon each year, the Agricultural Marketing Resource Centre says.

Fyffes raised its full-year underlying profit guidance for 2015 from a range between €44 million (£31.4 million) and €50 million to between €55 million and €61 million.

It is the second year Fyffes has moved to upgrade full-year guidance.

The price increase is likely to hit banana-mad Britons, with the average person in the UK eating about 100 bananas a year. It comes despite the escalating supermarket price war, with the yellow fruit a key product fought over.

The update comes some eight months after shareholders in banana firm Chiquita voted against a €1 billion merger with Fyffes. The tie-up, mooted in March last year, would have created the world’s largest banana supplier.