Passion fruit consumption expanding to new markets

"Every year, the product is consumed in more markets. Its intense flavour with strong, naturally concentrated aroma makes passion fruit stand out from other tropical fruits. It has become an important ingredient in world cuisine, thereby boosting the product's marketing and demand," points out Ricardo Merino, commercial manager at Quicornac SA.

The company, present in around 30 countries on five continents, markets a wide range of products derived from passion fruit, such as passion fruit concentrate, juice, arils (juice/pulp with seeds), oil (Passoil) and flour, among others.

"In Europe, consumption is rapidly expanding, with new uses not yet seen in other markets, including sweets, jellies, cocktails, icings, salad dressings and cake fillings, to cite a few," says Ricardo.

The company has processing plants in Ecuador and Peru, but doesn't have its own plantations.

"We buy from associations and storage centres, which are responsible for collecting the fruit from the growers to further transport it to processing plants. There are more than a thousand small producers, so it is necessary to collect fruit from a large number of plantations in order to fill a truck. This is what makes storage centres necessary," he affirms.

The amount of fruit processed by Quicornac varies greatly depending on the harvest. In 2011, it processed more than 100,000 tonnes of fruit at the two plants, while two years later, in 2013, this was reduced to just about 30,000 MT.

Sources from the company point out that Ecuador has a greater passion fruit production that Peru, where there is an important fresh market. Each year it continues to grow and this is resulting in a reduction of the volumes intended for export. In Ecuador, the fresh market for this fruit is almost non-existent.

"In Ecuador, processed volumes depend on the harvest and competition with other processors. In Peru's case, to these two factors we must add the disadvantage entailed by the months during which the volume for processing is considerably reduced as a result of the activities in the fresh market," he explains.

Regarding the prospects for 2015, Ricardo says: "The weather conditions are not being favourable this year. We have a greater harvest than last year, but slightly below what we expected due to heavy and prolonged rains that will take a toll on both production and yields."