Gold Pineapple

In the end of April, beginning of May, there was a small blip up seen on the radar of total production. Lasting less than 2 weeks. And the majority of farms quickly returned to a steady production that mirrored harvest volumes they had been doing weekly for the months previous.

This year we are experiencing a different challenge. The El Nino effect for Costa Rica which means 1/4 the amount of rain.  With that reduced rain and clouds, it’s delaying the maturing cycle from 2 to 4 weeks for many farms. Less rain typically means less clouds, which translates into sun burned pineapple and bleached out crowns. End result is a shortage in overall production for Costa Rica that’s starting a month earlier than we have seen over the previous 5+ years.

A new factor that is reducing the amount of fruit overall is the farms are reducing the sizing curve to avoid the largest fruit, size 5s. Over the last 10 years, farms would grow the largest fruit possible to achieve the highest yields and could sell anything not exported to be processed locally into juice or frozen fruit products for a price that covered the growing costs. Minimal risks. For the last quarter of 2022 and for all of 2023, any case harvested of large fruit that isn’t exported would create a loss so big it could wipe out the profits of 5+ cases exported. With a potential loss of that size, it makes sense that we have seen less 5s overall year to date coming out of Costa Rica and expect this shift away from 5s to be a new reality at many farms.

At Stella Farms, we continue to cater to our consistent contract customers and enjoy producing the large fruit of highest quality for each of them. Because of our boutique farming done on a medium scale, we continue to do great things and maintain a quality for our loyal customers each and every year.

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