No early pomegranates from India
"This year we had a bad flowering period and volumes are low," explained one trader. "This has caused prices on the domestic market to be high and there is virtually no fruit for export as the quality is just not there."
"The fruit usually has a good colour from the rains but this is not the case at the moment."
There is change happening in India at the moment with a few companies starting to process pomegranates and selling the arils pre-packed and ready to eat.
"If the catering sector starts to use more processed fruit then demand for arils will certainly increase, they are already getting more and popular. It is difficult to say if it will overtake demand for fresh fruit as fruit is fruit after all and it is difficult to compare the two products."
"A lot of fresh pomegranates go to the Gulf and this cannot be compare to the aril market which is much less, that said the quality of arils in Indian pomegranate is very high and catering and juice businesses may shift over. The size of the fruit is small and in some areas it is difficult to sell, this where the aril side of the business would be much more competitive."