Cut fruits such as pineapple, mango, or coconut, and increasingly also melon and watermelon, are attracting market interest because of how they facilitate consumption. Following this trend, companies involved in the production of, for example, pineapples, are setting up facilities for slicing and packaging.
"There are fruits such as pineapple or coconut that consumers do not buy if they are not cut up and packaged because they are difficult to handle in their original form. We are growing with cut pineapple because demand is significantly on the rise, but also with mango, melon, and watermelon. As long as the quality is good, people prefer cut fruit. We are moving towards quality cut fruit at a good price. Still, while sliced fruit is growing a lot, fresh trade remains our main line of business," says Frunet manager Antonio López.
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"Pineapple is no longer a seasonal fruit. It is also not even considered part of the exotic range, as its consumption has become common all year round," says the manager. "Sliced pineapple has already completely won over consumers, because the fruit is not easy to cut, its flavor is generally good, and its price is affordable."
"Avocado has also become quite common, and I believe Spain is the most important producer in Europe, which has facilitated that increase in consumption," says the manager. The company produces 2,500 tons of avocados. "We will start harvesting some of the smooth-skinned varieties at the end of September, and we will go on until April."
"Increase in the number of kilos of avocado and mango"
As far as mango is concerned, "we started harvesting last week and we will continue until the end of October, depending on the rains. This fruit is still behind avocado in terms of our production; we get around 1,500 tons a year," says the manager.
Regarding the season's prospects, the manager says: "After a few years of drought in which we have seen the avocado production decline, we are expecting a good amount of kilos thanks to the rains, which have helped a lot. We are expecting an improvement in the number of kilos of avocado and mango for that reason."
The most important avocado-growing area in Spain is still the Costa Tropical of Malaga and Granada. "It appears that plantations in the Valencia region and in the province of Huelva have currently stopped expanding. It is not an easy product at all, and in agriculture, there are always good and bad years. There is no such thing as an almighty fruit that always does well," says the manager.
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As far as Morocco's growing importance in the avocado sector is concerned, the manager says: "Their acreage is expanding because they can rely on some great water desalination infrastructures. I believe they could surpass Spain in terms of production, if they haven't already. In agriculture, when you have access to water resources, there's plenty of room for development."
"Our public sector is not committed to agriculture. Added to this is the fact that unfair competition is doing us a lot of harm because of the difference in costs and the permissiveness in the use of phytosanitary treatments that were banned here some time ago," he says.
Frunet is devoted to the production of exotic fruits, pineapple, mango, and avocado. Its main facilities are in Malaga, where they do the slicing, and the pineapple plantations are in Costa Rica. In total, they handle about 20 million kilos per year, which are distributed in the domestic and European markets.
For more information:
Antonio López
Frunet
Tel.: +34 609 50 03 78
[email protected]
www.frunet.net