Cooler temperatures settling into the Florida market has affected the volume of this year’s passion fruit crop.
“While right now we’re starting to get more volume, with the cold weather coming already, the volume has been low,” says Maria Alejandra Gutierrez of Homestead, Fl.-based Terra Fresh Foods, LLC. “We were estimating to have bigger productions but it’s about 40 per cent less than last year.” Gutierrez adds that they are getting varieties of passion fruit including both golden and purple passion fruit.
Pricing boost
While the weather may have cooled off volume, it has heated up the pricing. “Prices are about 15 per cent higher than last year. Since there’s very little product out there, there’s really not a lot of competition. Definitely demand is more than supply,” she adds. “We’re not struggling to sell the product. We’re struggling to be able to fill up the orders so prices have been significantly higher because of that reason.” Gutierrez anticipates that for the remainder of the season, prices will stay steady, barring any changes in the cold weather. “So we should have product available every week but still very limited,” she says. Most of that demand seems to be coming from the local Florida market as well as the northeast market.
No color of choice
Interestingly, while the purple passion fruit is generally more popular with consumers, this year’s short supply means consumers can’t be as choosy. “This year, for the first time, color is no longer an issue with consumers because of the fact that they’ve been short,” says Gutierrez.
For more information:
Maria Alejandra Gutierrez
Terra Fresh Foods, LLC
Tel: +1 786 553 6900