Pineapple importers aren’t remembering 2018 too fondly. “We’ve had bad prices before, but I can’t remember the last time we had such a long period of bad prices,” says Miguel Gonzalez of MG Fruit. “There has been a slight recovery since the second week of December, prices went from 6/7 euro to 8 euro, but that’s still not great, and it doesn’t compensate for what was lost in the past months either.”
According to the experienced importer, the cause is clear: “There’s just too much production. Naturally from Costa Rica as biggest supplier, but also from Panama and other Central American countries. You could reason all you want in this trade, but supply and demand still decide price levels. This will regulate itself again after a while, because growers will quit because of this dramatic market situation, eventually resulting in a market with less supply and higher prices.”
