“A couple of weeks ago, the price of a pineapple package could reach 11 euros [12.45 USD], but now prices have dropped completely. We are selling between 4 and 5 euros [4.5 and 5.6 USD] for pineapples of coloration 1, and between 6 and 7 euros [6.8 and 7.9 USD] for pineapples of coloration 2 or 3,” explains François Moran of Tropibana.
The reason for this drop in prices? A particularly low demand, mostly due to the “Black Friday” effect. “This year, consumers in the Paris region rushed to online promotional actions, to the detriment of their consumption of exotic and off-season fruit. Household appliance and multimedia stores did amazing, some even saw their sales increase by 30%. But the consequences are dramatic for our sector. We have suffered from “Black Friday” much more than last year. Only the well-known brands did well. In supermarkets, there have been many promotional actions during the past couple of weeks. Some hard discount stores even offer bananas at 0.89 euro cents [1.01 USD]!”
Those low prices are in stark contrast with the increase in freight and the quality of the product: “what is incredible is that, in spite of these low prices, the cost of containers continues to increase, going from 2,500/3,000 USD to more than 4,000 USD today. The quality of the pineapples we receive is also very satisfactory, but prices are unfortunately not regulated according to the quality of the product.”
Despite this very problematic situation, the market should quickly regain a certain balance. “We hope that the market will settle down. There should be a spring effect within a couple of weeks with Sinterklaas and then Christmas. Pineapple prices should then go up and vary between 10 and 12 euros [11.3 and 13.6 USD] per package.”
For more information:
François Moran
Tropibana
Phone: +33.620.17.20.13
f.moran@atominternational.com
www.tropibana.fr