Pineapple juice is scarce and expensive due to a small harvest
pineapple juice is a popular exotic fruit juice that is valued in Germany both on its own and as a flavorful ingredient in multivitamin juices. However, it is currently in short supply and expensive. Due to the increased price of orange juice, pineapple juice is increasingly being used as an alternative, which has led to a further increase in demand. The shortage can be attributed to several factors: Producers' stocks are largely depleted and harvests in the main growing countries are smaller than usual.
In Thailand and the Philippines, the drought prevented pineapples from growing optimally, resulting in a significant drop in harvest volumes, which are now less than 50% of the previous harvest volumes. In Costa Rica, another important growing country, the climate phenomenon El Niño caused extreme drought in 2023, which led to a drastic reduction in harvest volumes. In 2024, the opposite weather phenomenon La Niña with heavy rainfall also led to crop failures. The effects are being felt both in the industry and in retail: fruit juice producers are receiving smaller deliveries and the fresh fruit on sale is also significantly smaller than usual.
Rising prices for pineapple juice
The price of a tonne of pineapple juice concentrate is already over 5,000 US dollars. Direct juice now costs around 1,300 US dollars per tonne - an increase of 50% within six months.
Structure of pineapple cultivation
The cultivation and marketing of pineapples is structured differently internationally. While the market for fresh pineapple is dominated by large trading groups such as Del Monte and Dole, the production of pineapple juice is primarily dominated by smaller companies that specialize in processing into canned goods and fruit juice. Thailand is the world's largest producer of pineapple juice concentrate, followed by the Philippines and Indonesia. Costa Rica, on the other hand, has established itself as the main producer of direct juice. Due to climatic conditions, pineapple cultivation is limited to regions near the equator - mainly between the tropics. The current situation poses major challenges for the industry and is likely to lead to shortages in the coming months.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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