Pineapple monthly review: June 2019

The pineapple market experienced fairly difficult conditions throughout June. The Costa Rican Sweet supply was substantial, and still highly unbalanced because of natural flowering. The more popular sizes 6 and 7 were very scarce, while the supply of sizes 8, 9 and 10 was abundant, in the face of fairly flat overall demand. The high temperatures, and the progressing and varied seasonal fruit supply, available at low prices, hit pineapple demand and consumption hard. From the first half-month, operators were informed that the Costa Rican volumes peak would come in around week 26. In this context only those involved with the supermarket sector managed to remain fluid. For the rest, the situation deteriorated a little further, with sales often made below market prices.

Throughout the month, the air-freight pineapple supply shrank constantly. Market conditions were fairly difficult, since despite the fall in imports, operators struggled to keep up. Seasonal fruits quickly captured the bulk of demand. Activity was very soon minimised on the pineapple market, and until the end of the month, operators continued to reduce their imports in the hope of regaining some balance between supply and demand. The fall in volumes had a bigger impact on Cayenne batches, whose quality was fairly heterogeneous during the second half-month. Sugarloaf batches continued to sell rather well, with the more coloured fruits earning better value. The Latin American Sweet supply, increasingly small, also sold well and at high rates (between 2.40 and 2.50 euros/kg).

From the beginning of the month, the Victoria market entered its summer phase, characterised by a big drop in supply and demand, and rates remaining stable. As seasonal fruits progressed, demand gradually abandoned Victoria as it did most small exotic fruits, yet rates for the fruit remained stable.

pineapple - france - import prices