Pineapple monthly review: May 2021

In May, the pineapple market supply was disrupted by several shipping delays, which complicated the placement of the Sweet supply. However, the delay to and paucity of the seasonal fruits supply enabled the supermarket sector to continue to organise pineapple promotions. It was thanks to these various promotions that the market was able to maintain some fluidity. However, because of the weak spot demand, operators had to gradually bring down their prices to prevent the market from becoming saturated. At the end of the month, the flat pineapple demand further confirmed the appeal of those batches of seasonal fruits available, although their prices were still high. Operators made every effort to maintain fluidity, especially since Costa Rica’s natural bloom was set to be bigger than initially forecast.

During the first half-month, air-freight market operators struggled to keep pace, since several lower-quality batches were still hanging around on the market. So we saw the rates range widen (especially for Cayenne), according to batch quality. The succession of public holidays also forced operators into scaling back their imports to maintain some sales fluidity. In the second half-month, the seasonal fruits supply available forced the operators to scale back their imports slightly. Pineapple sales were steadier, since the quality of those batches placed on the market was more stable. Sales were mainly fluid on the Sugarloaf market, for both coloured and green fruit. The top-up Sweet supply from Latin America, still very much scaled-back, sold without any difficulty.

Demand gradually switched away from Victoria to the seasonal fruits supply. Rates nonetheless remained stable, for those batches available.

pineapple - france - import prices may 2021