With the feeling that there is an undersupplied market for organic pineapples, not only in the US but also globally, last year Pasco Foods, Inc. began its program with fresh organic pineapples, grown in Costa Rica under the CostaVerde brand.
Pasco is vertically integrated with the largest privately owned organic pineapple grower in Costa Rica. “We also offer conventional product but our primary focus, especially long term, is the organic segment,” said JP Kloninger of Pasco Foods. He says it’s also beneficial from the grower’s perspective and from an overall environmental, social and business standpoint.
Past hurricane impact
Hurricane Otto struck Costa Rica and Nicaragua last Thanksgiving, and its effects were felt well into the first quarter of 2017. “We felt a ripple effect in pineapple supply and the overall business several weeks after the hurricane, but fortunately we are past that now”, said Kloninger. “While we were still able to provide consistent, high-quality supply since January, for a while we did have to cull a bit more than what we consider typical.”
Focus on Northeast
The West Coast may have the upper hand when it comes to consumption and embracing the organic movement, but Kloninger says he thinks there’s a good deal of demand in the Northeastern United States and neighboring parts of Canada as well. “From our end what we have been doing is beating our drum a bit more in that part of the country. We’re about to start moving product to the Northeast with some frequency, and in the South/Southwest not too long from now. We’re looking for those who value and understand organics and ideally have something of a track record in this space. Our customers on the west coast have been in the organic game for many years, and they just didn’t have a consistent year-round provider of organic pineapples, so it was a nice match and we’re happy we can build a solid, long-term program with our partners.”
Pasco is also looking into a crownless pineapple program, with both their organic and conventional CostaVerde brand fruit. “Sometimes during a second harvest for example, pineapples can grow crooked crowns, but that fruit is still excellent for the fresh-cut, frozen or juicing markets”, he said.
Fore more information:
JP Kloninger
Pasco Foods
Tel: 512-956-7516