The decision by Jonathan Bradfield, a pineapple farmer in Bathurst, Eastern Cape, to add value to his fresh pineapple through drying, has paid off handsomely. Limestone Hill Farm, which has been in the Bradfield family for four generations, started drying their Cayenne pineapples a decade ago, as part of their strategy to move the focus away from canning and juicing.“In the Eastern Cape we grow a pineapple with a unique flavour because of the high brix : acid ratio,” explains Anton Ferreira, operations manager at Limestone Hill Farm's drying factory. “The Eastern Cape pineapple has a fantastic flavour and by drying it we’re aiming to capitalise on an amazing product. It is one of the most southerly growing regions in the world.”
The expansion of their drying facilities as well as production increase fortuitously coincided with a global shortage on all pineapple products (canned, juiced, frozen and dried) when world demand skyrocketed at the end of 2016 and beginning 2017. There followed a massive but ultimately unsustainable rise in prices, shooting up from about R1,500 (€101) per tonne to R3,500 (€235) per tonne for fresh pineapple. The inevitable crash in prices for fresh pineapple came towards the end of last year. Currently the price for dried pineapple is roughly 7.50 Euro per kg including delivery costs.
Production of dried pineapple on the GlobalG.A.P-accredited farm doubled from 110 tonnes in 2016 to 220 tonnes last year, almost all of it grown themselves. Last year they dried the majority of their 5,000 tonne harvest and sold around 600t as fresh fruit on the local market.
Ninety-five percent of employees in the labour-intensive drying facility are women (photos supplied by Limestone Hill Farm)
Pure, unsweetened dried pineapple
What differentiates their product from dried pineapple from Thailand, is that theirs is sugar-free, with only the addition of sodium metabisulphate as preservative. ”It is not broken down and poured into moulds. It is purely dried pineapple. Elsewhere, the pineapple is boiled and sugared and then moulded and dried,” Anton points out.
Therefore, the product is in demand in health-conscious places like Germany, Spain and the UK where 90% of their dried pineapple currently go.
Locally their dried pineapple is delivered to At Source Handmade Food, situated in Ceres, which provides Woolworths with premium dried fruit. Dried pineapple makes up a fraction of the domestic dried fruit market, but Limestone Hill Farm is looking to expand its footprint locally.
“The factory has grown immensely. In 2015 we employed 25 people and now there are between 50 and 60, of whom 95% are women,” Anton continues. “We’re situated in a financially poor area and social responsibility is a high priority for the farm, therefore our product is hand cut, never machine cut, into whole rings, half rings or chunks. The other reason for doing it this way is that our packout is much higher when the pineapple is cut by hand, around 50 to 55%.”
The fruit is processed within two days of harvest, and since they harvest throughout the year, they also dry throughout the year. The drying process takes about 13 to 18 hours, depending on the dryer and climatic conditions. Because of the high acidic content of pineapples, Anton adds, there is a low chance of mould and yeast infections and the product has a shelf life of 12 months at 4 to 8°C.
For more information:
Anton Ferreira
Limestone Hill Farm
Tel: +27 46 6250 815
Email: anton@limestonehill.co.za