The tropical pineapples industry in Costa Rica is busy recovering following a drop in production after natural flowering says, Jose Carlos Chaves, responsible for Commercial Sales at the Costa Rican pineapple grower and exporter Tropicales Del Valle. They have also had stable demand in the European markets after this event and a reactivation of demand in the Baltic countries, especially Russia, while the latest war in Israel has started to see reduced orders from cautious customers.
He says the drop in volumes takes place yearly due to natural flowering. “We had faced a significant reduction in our production volumes after the natural flowering, but we have already progressively recovered them. It is a natural phenomenon of the industry, which occurs especially during the supply of local production in Europe."
Carlos Chaves says the focus on increasing production is towards the Christmas season in their key markets. “Part of the focus on volume growth is focused on being able to satisfy the demand of our customers in the different regions of Europe and USA, which increases as we approach Christmas. It is a business oriented to supply and demand and since it is a perishable product, many times the accumulation of stocks in a few weeks can affect the sales prices, however, in the last weeks we have had a stable demand with quite reasonable sales prices, which are projected to rise as we reach the Christmas season. The markets are still volatile at these specific times of the year, some weeks you have a good market in Spain and Holland, and other weeks a more complicated market in Italy for example. Furthermore, the economic recovery of the markets after the European summer holidays indirectly affects the consumption in some locations, especially with exotic products such as pineapple, which has been an identified behaviour in the UK, for example.”
Seeing orders in countries at war
He says despite the war between Russia and the Ukraine they start to see strong demand for pineapples from both countries. “We supply the Baltic markets too and we have been impressed by the reactivation of the demand in these regions, despite the war with Ukraine and its challenges with the currency and the shipping rates, Russia continues to be an important market for us. It is a market that has been especially affected by the depreciation of the Ruble, which has reached almost 27% throughout the year, however, this has not limited our different clients to continue developing sales for this season. In these markets we expect to close the year strong, however in Israel customers are reducing their orders as a protective measure, so we will have to see how the things develop over there,” concludes Carlos Chaves.
For more information:
Jose Carlos Chaves
Tropicales del Valle
Tel: +506 2239 9696
Email: [email protected]
www.tropicalesdelvalle.com