PH still world’s 2nd largest pineapple exporter

The Philippines has kept its title as the world’s second-largest exporter of pineapples behind Costa Rica, with the volume rising by 2 percent in 2023 due to the rising demand from China.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said in its latest major tropical fruits market review that the Philippines exported some 600,000 metric tons (MT) of pineapple in 2023, 2.7 percent more than the volume from the prior year.

The FAO did not provide comparative figures on the Philippines’ pineapple exports, but said the volume rose every year from 2021 to 2023. However, the level as of the end of last year was still short of the 626,000 MT of pineapple delivered to key markets in 2019.

For last year, the FAO attributed the improvement to the 3-percent increment in shipments to China.

“The long shelf life, year-round production cycle and attractive price-to-quality ratio of the MD2 pineapples, the main variety cultivated in the Philippines, proved to be a particularly strong selling point,” it said.

China is the leading consumer of locally produced pineapples, cornering 43 percent of total exports, followed by Japan and Korea with 30 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

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The country’s pineapple exports to Japan and Korea grew by 6 to 8 percent.

The FAO also said the average export unit value of pineapple shipments from the Philippines to world markets reached $593 per ton in 2023, up by 3.8 percent from the previous year.

Globally, the volume of pineapple delivered rose by 3.9 percent to 3.2 million MT in the past year, mainly due to higher supplies from Costa Rica.