Banana splits?

Weekly Updates

Bananas are the most popular fruit for US consumers. They are almost entirely imported, making an ideal study of the impact of US trade taxes. Their short shelf life means bananas sold today were imported after 10% trade taxes were imposed.
While banana import prices move a lot, retailers typically adjust their profit margins to keep consumer prices very stable over time. Retailers do increase banana profit margins when import prices fall—but by holding the consumer price steady as their costs decline. Banana consumer prices almost never rise when import prices fall. But exactly that is happening today.
Since February, US banana imports became 13% cheaper (UN FAO). US President Trump added a 10% tax, but even with that tax bananas should be 4.2% cheaper than in February. However, the consumers pay 5.8% more (BLS). Rather than saving 6 cents per kilo (after paying the trade tax), US consumers are paying 8 cents more.
The reason might be profit-led inflation. Consumer have been told that all bananas are imported, and all imports will be taxed 10%. Even though banana import prices are lower and import prices are only part of the consumer price, the tariff story allows retailers to persuade consumers to accept that prices should be higher when perhaps they should be lower.