Pineapple monthly review: September 2022

In September, the situation on the pineapple market got gradually tougher, if not deteriorating. In the first half, we could observe a slight increase in the Costa Rican supply, with volumes on the market sufficient to cover demand, which was rather moderate. However, the operators, who had hitherto sold their fruit fairly quickly, started to monitor their stocks again. The second half was marked above all by a distinct slowdown in sales, due to increasingly flat demand. To address this situation, operators let prices slip, in the hope of getting their stocks moving. In fact the pressure increasingly rose on the spot market because of abundant poor sales. Without being catastrophic, the figures were nonetheless increasingly low. At the very end of the month, in the face of an idling market, operators feared a more distinct deterioration in market conditions for the coming weeks.

The air-freight pineapple market saw a fairly similar development. Hence over the first half-month, it was fairly fluid due to the very lean supply, with mainly stable rates. From the start of the second half, several operators opted to increase their supply, counting on better demand thanks to the new school year. Unfortunately, demand did not really turn up, and the market was rather slow throughout the second half. The still-limited Cayenne supply sold more or less well according to the quality of fruit placed. Demand was less high for Sugarloaf, with rates fluctuating according to demand. The Latin American Sweet supply, although limited, had a bit more of a struggle to sell. The knock-on effects of the increased freight costs at times acted as a brake on demand.

Throughout the month, the overall Victoria supply remained highly restrained. This situation above all benefitted the few batches from South Africa and Reunion, which sold well. Mauritian fruit, despite its low availability, sold at lower prices.

pineapple - france - import prices september 2022