The McCann family's Balkan Investments company has now spent more than £2 million in the past month buying Fyffes shares and has increased its stake from 10.2 per cent to 11.6 per cent since the beginning of December.

Fyffes yesterday confirmed last Saturday's report in The Irish Times that Balkan had bought two million shares at €1 each. This is by far the biggest block of shares that the McCann's have bought in the past month; they have now bought almost 2.8 million shares at a cost of almost €2.7 million (£2.1 million).

Balkan Investments is controlled by Fyffes chairman Mr Neil McCann and his two sons, chief executive Mr David McCann and finance director Mr Carl McCann.

The McCanns began their buying immediately after a December announcement on a major rationalisation of its banana ripening business in Britain, involving the closure of three ripening centres owned directly by Fyffes and through its Geest joint venture.

The collapse in the share price from a high of €3.98 last February to €0.65 in November before the recent modest recovery has led to speculation that the McCann family might bid to take the company private - possibly backed by venture capital. Others in the market believe, however, that the McCanns are simply taking advantage of the low share price to rebuild their stake in the fruit distribution company. A spokesman for Fyffes said it would be "inappropriate" to comment on the share buying.

The most recent buying has not put a floor under Fyffes shares and the shares fell six cents to €0.94 in moderate trading yesterday. At last night's closing price, Fyffes is valued at €276 million, although the company is extremely cash-rich with €64 million in its balance sheet at the end of October.