The value of Costa Rica's pineapple exports was 7.5% higher than its banana shipments in the first half of 2014, while the sector also experienced faster growth, according to the national Foreign Trade Promoter (Procomer).

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Foreign pineapple trade from the Central American country totaled US$459 million from January to the end of June, compared with US$427 million in banana exports over the same period, although new data for the latter crop could change that figure slightly over August.

In addition, the pineapple industry's exports grew by 12.7% year-on-year, whereas the banana sector only saw an increase of 7.19%.

The weight of total pineapple exports also increased 14.7% in January through June to 1107 million metric tons (MT), while bananas saw a more modest increase of 2.55% to 1014MT.

Speaking to www.freshfruitportal.com, National Chamber of Pineapple Growers and Exporters (CANAPEP) president Christian Herrera Leon said the industry's trade could hit US$900 million in 2014, although wet weather over the last month due to El Niño hindered production somewhat.

"There's been a lot of rainfall in July, especially in the Northern and Caribbean regions where 52% and 32% of the production is respectively. So that can spoil some fruit and decrease exports," Leon said.

"I think a similar thing is happening with the bananas too."

Source: Adapted from Procomer

Leon said 52% of shipments had gone to Europe so far this year, with the rest bound for the United States.

An increased global supply into the EU also took its toll on prices slightly, but Leon expected the situation to improve.

"The markets are a little bit tighter compared to last year, but there is a lot of fruit which Costa Rica is selling on a fixed price basis with their programs." he said.

"Also, production generally peaks around late May, so normally the market receives a lot of fruit for those months and gives it a little bit of pressure, but then the lower quantities of fruit tend to compensate for that later on."

Leon went on to say that although about 80% of Europe's pineapples come from Costa Rica, consumption of the fruit is still 'really low'.

"The country has to improve its efforts to increase the fruit's consumption, promoting all the healthy properties that it offers," he said.

"We have seen the market is increasing comsumption by about 7% every year, so we are optimistic that maybe with a big campaign and teaching the final customer all about the advantages of the fruit, we can see a faster increase.

"It's also an issue that, whereas people might buy bananas every week, they only really buy pineapples a couple of times a year.

"We are pretty confident that we are going in the right direction. Costa Rica has the best technology for pineapple production in the world, we are working hard to keep that the status and make it much more environmentally-friendly."

Next step: China?

In August 2011, a free trade agreement between Costa Rica and China came into effect, and Leon said the industry had been working together with the Chinese authorities to open up exports to the Asian country 'very soon'.

"Hopefully in the next three weeks we will receive the Chinese technical mission so they can come and audit the country, checking things like the farms, the packing plants, the pesticide usage, the government control of the pesticides and labor welfare," he said.

'Very tight' pesticide filters

Leon said that although Costa Rica imported large amounts of pesticides, a significant proportion of them are in fact sold on to other Central American countries, so pesticide use isn't as high as many people might believe.

He added that the agricultural industry was looking into ways to use more eco-friendly pesticides on its crops.

"We are now doing a lot of research to see how we can use more innocuous pesticides available in the market. As the technology advances and the pesticides market will start offering our productions with healthier or less toxic pesticides usage," he said.

He added that the Costa Rica pineapple industry had several 'filters' for what pesticides it could use on crops, as stipulated by the Costa Rican government, the EU - in which countries often have their own specific requirements - the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), all supermarkets throughout the world it supplies, and now the Chinese requirements as well.

"When we grow pineapples and we don't know where they will be sent, so we have to use the tightest levels in the market," Leon said.

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