The pineapple market is getting a bit more difficult each year. That's what Mario de Goede of Coolfresh says. "Costa Rica produces more every year, which has an influence on the market. Periods with good prices become increasingly shorter and rarer, and periods where you have to fight to break even, are becoming longer. It's a bit like with bell peppers in the Netherlands. Eventually, Costa Rica will have to make a plan to either stabilize production or to tap into new markets."
At the moment, the pineapple market is going through the traditional 'big' transition from November to December. "November has long been a bad month, December a good month. As a result, you go up two or three Euro within just two weeks. We always succeed in doing that, but there is a bit of work involved. Customers always think the price increase won't come, but it happens each year. It's not pleasant having to pay 10 Euro the week of Christmas, with the market price being 7 Euro the week before, but when the prices go up to 11 Euro, it's all forgotten again," Mario says.
"At the moment, the market price is 7-7.50 Euro, and we want to reach 8-8.50 Euro by the end of the week. We're having a normal Christmas supply, perhaps just a bit higher than normal, but there are no surpluses. For us, the largest part was pre-sold, and we don't have that many pineapples in free trade," the importer says. "Pineapple is still a hot item for Christmas. We have to disappoint people who want to run promotions then, they had time to do that in the months of October and November. In the week of Christmas, that's just not possible."
For more information:
Mario de Goede
Coolfresh
mario@coolfresh.nl
Direct office: + 31 88 3 777 138
Mobile: +31 623 931 499
For more information:
Mario de Goede
Coolfresh
mario@coolfresh.nl
Direct office: + 31 88 3 777 138
Mobile: +31 623 931 499