The pineapple market is extremely tight following a period of oversupply that sent prices plummeting.
“We had a huge amount of fruit from Costa Rica in May and June,” said one UK importer. “From a trading point of view it was bad as it drove prices down.”
The cause of the glut was natural flowering earlier in the production cycle, whereby the plants went into flower due to favourable weather conditions rather than being forced.
“Once the pineapples flower naturally, there is nothing anyone can do,” said the importer. The problem is then that growers do not have the same control over the crop as if they were inducing it to order. “The people I speak to in Costa Rica say this is the most severe natural flowering they have ever known,” he added.
Now that the glut has finished traders are facing a very tight market, with prices climbing to over £2 each at some UK markets.
Another trader added that some small producers went out of business because of market glut.
“Prices crashed in the US market too, going from $0.40 to $0.15,” he said. “It was the worst June-July period we have seen in 10 years.”
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