Lobby group Banana Link has spoken out about the low retail price points of pineapples in the UK claiming it can be damaging to workers in Latin America.
In a statement the group said: “Yet again the leading British supermarkets are making plantation workers in Latin America bear the cost of slashing fruit prices in this country. Pineapples are now being sold for as little as 50p…This is one third less than was being charged last year. As the price wars pursued in bananas have shown, low prices here have a high cost for workers and their communities in producer countries such as Costa Rica, including poverty wages and environmental devastation.”
But one supermarket supplier hit back saying that price promotion on pineapples since January has been at the expense of the multiples themselves. He said: “They are doing it as a loss leader. There has been additional pineapple volume in the system for several months and the market has been relatively depressed. There is certainly volume out there, but that will tighten up now as the year moves on.”
Since the promotional activity began, industry figures point to a greater uptake of pineapples and one insider said that sales have climbed 40-50 per cent year on year. This growth is being driven by new consumers coming into the category, rather than by increased uptake in a category for which penetration has traditionally been low.
Some three-quarters of the pineapple sold in the UK is sourced from Costa Rica and growers there can understandably be concerned at the price-promoting activity, even if it is not being funded by them. One trade source said: “What will happen once prices go back to a realistic level? The positive impact is bringing people into the category but there is no evidence to suggest they will stay once prices go up again.”
