Ecuador is main pineapple supplier for Argentina

At the moment the area planted with own pineapple production is 317 hectares with a production of about 12.100 tons. The most important production region is Misiones with 300 hectares, followed by Salta and Jujuy with 15 hectares and Formosa has 2 hectares. The annual consumption is about 23.00 tons, so the lacking amount of tons is imported from Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. This was published in the newsletter: Boletín de Frutas y Hortalizas del Convenio INTA- CMCBA.

The tendency of the pineapple offer in the MCBA (Mercado Central de Buenos Aires) has been fluctuating over the years, however since the year 2013 it has been increasing. Last year 2016, over 2.478 tons of pineapples was offered, which is an increase of 10.8% compared to 2015.

In 2016, the majority of the pineapples offered in the MCBA was offered in December. From the 2.478 tons, 1.030 tons is offered in December. According to the information this is because of the habit of buying pineapples for the holidays. From all pineapples offered in the MCBA 66.9% is imported from Ecuador.

Varieties offered on the central market of Buenos Aires are the Smooth Cayenne (Cayenne Lisa), Hawaii (Hawaiana), Golden MD2 and Perola. The variety Pucallpa is imported from Bolivia and has characteristics such as having a simple crown without thorns, sizes bigger than over 2.5 kg, the color at maturity is reddish orange and the pulp has a yellowish color and it’s not very sweet. However, last year import from Bolivia accounted only 1.9% of the total supply of pineapples.