Sweeter & larger South African passion fruit beating competition from Latin America
Local exporter Pico Fresh, which exports three-quarters of South Africa’s passion fruit production, has seen a massive expansion. Garrick Mullin, director at Pico Fresh that exports three-quarters of South Africa’s passion fruit production, is looking towards European for market growth where the fruit is still considered a “niche product”.
“It’s a slow process to introduce more consumers to the product,” Mullin explains. “Passionfruit is very price-inelastic and it’s quite an expensive product because of air freight, so even if you dropped the price by 20% or 30%, you wouldn’t sell more passion fruit.”
South Africa exported 700,000 cartons of passion fruits in 2015/16 - roughly 90% to Europe and the United Kingdom. According to Mullin, Pico Fresh has seen massive expansion the past few years, driven by a global pulp shortage and expanded market opportunities. However, he claims the market is nearing saturation as Columbia has also stepped up exports to meet Europe’s yearlong demand.
Businessinsider.co.za describes how in South Africa, there are currently between 150 and 200 hectares of passion fruit plantations. Mullin explains that South African passion fruit output was once outstripped by Zimbabwe, but farm invasions put an end to a flourishing industry and gave an opening to South African farmers.
