Bananas from cyclone-ravaged parts of north Queensland are hitting the market for the first time since Yasi struck, with costs now tipped to fall after six months of soaring prices.

But despite improved prices for shoppers the banana industry still faces a long road to recovery.

In a packing shed in North Queensland, farmer David Singh is boxing up bananas for the first time in six months.

Almost all of his trees, which are grown near Cardwell, were wiped out by Yasi.

But some of the smaller plants survived, and are now bearing fruit.

Mr Singh says it will mean more bananas on supermarket shelves soon.

"You'll note from this month to the end of this month that we'll start to increase steady steady, but the main supply will be more like October," he said.

"Then you'll be getting back to normal numbers. That's my point of view anyway."

Mr Singh says the bananas are small, and any other year, would be thrown out rather than sold.

But he says these are desperate times.

"We're all in the same boat, all trying to find where they can find some bananas," he said.

"We'd like to get that market up and running soon as possible. As you know, we can't do without our banana."

Businesses all around banana growing regions rely heavily on the farms.

Julia Wilson owns a petrol station between Cardwell and Tully.

"I do the local mail run here and a few months ago when I was driving around and saw the first bag on the bananas it was just such an amazing sight," she said.

"I never thought that something so small could mean so much.

"And then last week one of the big banana farmers actually had bananas on their conveyor belt in their shed and it's just amazing and the people's faces when they're coming in, I packed 20 cartons this week, it's such a small amount but [has such] a big meaning to them."

Weathering the storm

There is more fruit available but many growers along the coast between Townsville and Cairns still do not have any bananas at all.

Barry Conaski from Tully marketing group Banana Exchange says the industry is struggling.

"We were prepared to weather this storm a little, but it's a lot slower than we anticipated," he said.

"There is a little bit of cash flow starting to move through the area, but it is a lot slower than we thought."

He says as more farms begin to supply bananas, there will be more problems.

"I think we're going to have a big problem with labour, trying to get people back in to the workforce to get the bananas to market as such," he said.

"Because a lot of these people have left the area and there has been a lot of good people that have left the area."

Eighty per cent of the nation's bananas come from North Queensland, and fruit and vegetable wholesalers have felt the pain from the shortage as much as anyone.

'Beautiful piece of fruit'

Before the cyclone a 13-kilogram box of bananas cost around $20.

Since then wholesales have been paying $160 for a box of good quality fruit.

But wholesaler Peter Kedwell from the Brisbane markets says the price has peaked and is now going down.

"No-one wants to be caught with expensive fruit. Already we're seeing this week some orders are being held off. I think prices will drop fairly dramatically in the next few weeks," he said.

But he warns consumers the cheaper bananas will be smaller.

"I think they'll be grabbing them with glee. They're a beautiful piece of fruit. They're easy to peel, they're sweet, they're juicy," he said.

"They're the tropical rice or pasta, or bread. They're the best carbohydrates you can get."

Mr Singh is happy the bananas are back.

"Well when you got plenty of work to do in front of you, if you start dwelling on the past, we won't be around for too long," he said.

"So I always look towards the future. Someone else is always worse off than us, so that's the way you've got to look at it and carry on."