Pineapples are seeing strong demand this week leading up to Easter. “It’s quite a big pineapple holiday with many retailers doing promotions,” says Bobby Van Ligten with Pura Vida Farms in California. About 95 percent of the company’s pineapples are imported from Costa Rica and the balance is brought in from Ecuador. Both countries offer supplies year-round, but due to Costa Rica’s closer proximity to the US, the majority of volume is brought in from there.
Sold-out situation
While demand is typically strong around Easter, what’s different this year is supply. “It is a bit of a unique situation as supplies are struggling to cover demand,” said Van Ligten. “Usually, supplies are good this time of year, but we have seen supplies decreasing in the past two to three weeks,” he said. The weather situation seems to be normal, and Van Ligten is unsure what’s causing the decrease. He even heard of a sold-out situation in the Los Angeles area.
With Pura Vida being located in Southern California, the company’s pineapples arrive into the ports of Hueneme and San Diego. From there, product is distributed into West Coast states.
Costa Rica dominates exports
Costa Rica is the world’s largest exporter of pineapples with a market share of almost 70 percent, according to a report from the FAO. Cold weather conditions, high energy costs and container problems negatively affected production and exports from Costa Rica last year. The country’s total export volume was just below 2.2 million tonnes in 2022. Costa Rica almost exclusively ships its pineapples to the United States and Europe. Although Ecuador’s pineapple exports are a fraction of Costa Rica’s numbers, the country is the world’s third largest pineapple exporter, after The Philippines.
For more information:
Bobby Van Ligten
Pura Vida Farms
Tel: +1 (714) 671-1501
bvanligten@pvfarms.com
www.pvfarms.com