The gap between producer and retail prices for fruit and vegetables has widened to “unreasonably high” levels, with bananas selling for up to 110 percent above the price paid to farmers, the Consumers Association reported on Tuesday.

The findings result from the associations second major survey carried out in 2025, in which the prices of 30 fruit and vegetable products across supermarkets and farmers’ markets were examined, highlighting significant differences between the prices charged by retailers and those paid to producers.

According to the association, the typical gross profit margin for retail fruits and vegetables ranges from 50 to 60 percent based on producer prices. However, the findings revealed that margins for 27 of the examined products surpassed this level, indicating a pattern of disproportionate price increases.

“The data from the new survey led to the conclusion that there is still a serious problem in the marketing of fresh fruits and vegetables, which leads to an excessive increase in their retail prices.”, the consumers association said.

The greatest disparity was reported for bananas, with the retail price 110 per cent higher than the producer price, followed by red cabbage, 102 per cent, carrots, almost 90 per cent, red eggplants and onions, both around 80 per cent.

Overall, the survey, comparing the prices of supermarkets and farmers markets in the period from April to July 2025 with the same period of the previous year, found an average increase of 17 per cent in producer prices and a smaller average increase of 9 per cent in retail prices.

Despite new survey data reporting a slight decrease of excessive increase in retail prices compared to the first survey in 2025, the association said that the development still remained a concern.

“The prices offered at the farmers markets in Nicosia are 28-38 per cent lower than the retail prices recorded in the e-basket,” the association said, referring to the ‘e-Kofini’ application, which regularly publishes the average selling prices of basic locally produced fruit and vegetable products.

Calling on the authorities to take “appropriate measures”, the association said that the problem affected consumers and producers alike, with the latter suffering from the unreasonably high profit margins if they were not paid accordingly.

The consumers association’s research has been summarized in 40 tables, which have been posted on the website of the Cyprus consumers association: www.katanalotis.org.cy