The demand for pineapples in Europe is waning, causing the Costa Rican pineapple producer Fertinyc to turn to Israel and the Middle East. According to Hellen Madrigal, sales manager at Fertinyc, the lingering effects of a slow post-Covid-19 recovery compounded by the Russian war in Ukraine is affecting production as well as leading to slower sales in Europe.
Erlin Valerio (l) and Hellen Madrigal at their stand in Berlin recently.
“Everything changed after the pandemic. Production prices increased, demand is lower while other prices increased. The effect of the war caused fertilizer prices to be the highest cost, leading to less production. All this while there is not much demand and the price is not good. We hope during 2023 for the demand to be the same, but I’m afraid it is not going to be a good year like other years, but we really hope it stays the same,” says Madrigal.
While Europe remains their main market, they are looking to new markets of Israel and the Middle East to ensure a better export market spread. “We export around 90 containers per month. About 85% of that is sent to Europe with ripe fruit to Italy, Spain, Portugal as well as England and others. We send 10 % to EEUU, and the rest to the local market. We hope to increase our exports to Israel and Middle Eastern markets, because it is currently not a good time to grow in Europe,” states Madrigal.
She says at Fertinyc they focus on ecological growing of pineapples. Some of their pineapple brands include Bella Sweet, Baby Sweet and Queen Sofia. “Fertinyc is a family company, we are grower and exporter who grows agroecologic pineapples. We are a circular economy, we produce our own energy for packing boxes, we recycle the pineapple waste and produce fertilizers for our plantations,” Madrigal concludes.
For more information:
Hellen Madrigal
Fertinyc
Tel: +506 4001 2490
Email: [email protected]
www.fertinyc.com