Pineapple monthly review: May 2019

The pineapple market gradually tightened up in May. Because of natural flowering, the Costa Rican supply started climbing from the beginning of the month. In a context of very moderate demand the market quickly swelled as the shipments came in. Highly imbalanced, with small sizes (9 and 10) in the majority, the Costa Rican supply started to weigh down the market, forcing operators to lower their prices to remain fluid. Despite implementing promotions, operators could not prevent stocks from forming, with a succession of public holidays and demand increasingly captured by seasonal fruits. At the very end of the month, the announcement of shipping delays and a temporary reduction in the Costa Rican supply because of technical problems provided a brief glimpse of a possible respite.

The air-freight pineapple market had a flat start to the month, due in particular to the school holidays. There were big stocks especially on the Sweet market, where certain batches were even being sold on commission. Several operators opted to scale back their imports to sell off their stocks, but also boost demand a little. The Cayenne supply, highly irregular in terms of quality, struggled to sell. With the gradual arrival of seasonal fruits, pineapple sales were slower. Imports continued to fall until the end of the month. Despite distinctly lower activity, the air-freight market regained some fluidity. The top-up supply of Sweet shrank constantly after Easter, with purchasers more interested in seasonal fruit, available at fairly attractive prices.  

At the beginning of the month, the overall Victoria supply was very limited and demand uninterested. The rise in the supply as the month went on, while purchasers were switching to seasonal fruits, had consequences on sales, which were very slow; though not on prices, which overall remained fairly stable. Poor demand contributed to the partial withdrawal of the Ghanaian supply at the end of the month.

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