Pineapple monthly review: September 2023

The market conditions became tougher in September, despite fairly limited Costa Rican Sweet volumes. Comprising mainly sizes 8, 9 and 10 fruit, the Costa Rican supply was unbalanced throughout the month. Operators really struggled to sell off their merchandise because of the lack of interest from the supermarket sector. The situation, already difficult on the spot market, was aggravated by the extreme fragility of some batches, which limited their storage time, forcing operators to charge low prices. This made for fairly tough market conditions, encouraging several operators to make clearance sales (€5/box) for these sizes, to avoid having to manage fruit stocks. Meanwhile sizes 6 and 7, very scarce among the volumes available, continued to sell at high rates.  

On the air-freight pineapple market, sales remained fairly moderate over the month as a whole. Without being excessive, the overall supply however struggled to sell, with purchasers showing little enthusiasm for air-freight fruit in this new academic year period. It was also very hot, which encouraged purchasers to favour seasonal fruits. Finally, we should mention the fairly heterogeneous quality of some batches placed. The Cayenne supply was above all affected by rains (Cameroon). Demand for Sugarloaf was livelier, though the lack of coloration for the Beninese supply, the most abundant, prevented this fruit from earning better value. Demand for Sweet, though still very limited, did remain fairly steady.

The overall Victoria supply was fairly limited throughout the month, which enabled the operators with fruit to sell it off fairly smoothly, and at rather high rates.

pineapple - france - import prices sept 2023