Australians are saying no to bananas and turning instead to other fruit like grapes and apples as the price of the former favourite remains high.

The latest figures from ACNielsen reveals that Australians have not been prepared to pay more or their bananas with just two in ten households buying them compared to seven in ten a year ago.

Since Cyclone Larry devastated banana crops earlier this year the price of bananas has risen from as low as $2kg to more than $14kg.

The banana mad households who have been willing to pay that bit extra for the fruit have seen their average spend per kilo rise by up to 140 percent versus the same time last year.

Of those people who have chosen to switch fruits to compensate, the most popular three fruits seem to have been grapes, apples and pears, which have secured growth of 31 per cent, 20 per cent and 11 per cent respectively of consumers switching from bananas to alternative fruits.

ACNielsen senior manager, retail Queensland, Mel Mackie, said that with consumers replacing bananas with other fruits, marketers of bananas would have to work to win back lost consumers.

“Many consumers have replaced their banana consumption with other fruits in recent months,” says Mackie. “And as new crops become available in the months ahead, an emphasis on quality coupled with a re-iteration of the health and nutritional value of bananas will be critical to winning back lost consumers and getting sales back to pre-cyclone levels.”