Panama Golden Pineapple and New International Markets
As Farmfolio continues to expand its portfolio and asset offering in Latin America, we are proud to announce our Panama Golden Pineapple project. For this new venture, we are partnering with Verba Odrec SA, which has selectively developed a core group of national and international customers during the last five years. Both Farmfolio and Verba Odrec SA look for creditworthy, fair, and honest reputations, while focusing on specific markets with distinct competitive advantages throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Therefore, the majority of Verba Odrec SA’s customers are large wholesale importers with warehouse and transport facilities in order to deliver to retail markets in their respective countries. Furthermore, most of these wholesale importers serve their communities by managing all kinds of fruits and not only pineapple.
Panama Golden Pineapple and New International Markets
On average, Verba Odrec SA’s yield is 4.5 containers per hectare or approximately 55,000 fruits per hectare. Currently, the company exports between six to ten containers or 16,000 boxes weekly. Likewise, Verba Odrec SA’s largest market is Europe, which is increasingly drawn towards high-value fruits and vegetables, such as grapes, pineapples, strawberries, and zucchinis. Even though the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables is increasing because Europeans prefer healthy food options, the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables is still low, which creates important growth opportunities. Normally, large pineapples with crowns sizes 5, 6 & 7 are shipped predominantly to the United States. Meanwhile, crownless fruit sizes 6, 7 & 8 are mainly shipped to processing plants in the United States and Canada. Lastly, midsize pineapples, sizes 6, 7, 8 & 9, are shipped predominantly to Europe.
Although growth ratios may decrease in the future, the pineapple market is growing in all European Union member states. The Netherlands and Belgium are of particular interest because they are the main distributors of pineapples imported into the EU. Similarly, new markets to explore include Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific (Japan and South Korea). Simultaneously, China, whose market will open to pineapple from Panama in 2018, will be a key market as the transit time from Central America is expected to be shorter than that of other exporters. Likewise, in terms of new markets, the increasing amount of mature fruit shipped to niche markets by air can have a price that is 30% to 40% higher than regular exports via maritime containers. Furthermore, the revenue per case from air shipments can be up to four times that of regular container shipment.
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