Pineapple competition always spikes interest
The freakiest, the heaviest and the tastiest are some of the titles to be awarded to pineapples during the Bathurst Agricultural Show.
The outrageously funky fruit provides entertainment value just by the way it looks – after all, why else would Bathurst’s best known landmark be a giant pineapple?
Being in a room full of pineapples is a bit of an existential leap from being inside a 16.7m-tall fibreglass pineapple – but at this year’s Bathurst Agricultural Show from March 22-24, the Pineapple Growers Association hall at the Bathurst Showgrounds needs to be one of your stops.
Pineapples may look absurd, but they are serious business, with Ndlambe alone producing about 60% of SA’s 188,300 metric tonnes of pineapples (with the Eastern Cape producing 82.7%), according to Stats SA figures published in 2020.
Most of us know the market fruit varieties – usually displayed on supermarket shelves with their stylish tops still on.
But the real deal for the Eastern Cape’s pineapple farmers is what is exported through the processing factories – 64% of total production.
Most of what is grown in Ndlambe, Makana and around East London is processed at East London’s Summerpride processing plant.
At the time research was conducted for the 2020 Stats SA publication, 7,927ha of farmland in Ndlambe was under pineapples, producing 140,321 metric tonnes; and in Makana, 350ha (producing 4,000 metric tonnes).
The study found that of Ndlambe’s 140,321 metric tonnes, 26,324 went directly to retailers and chain stores; 73,675t went to processing factories; 39,155t were exported and 1,166t were sold directly from farmers to consumers.
In 2021/22, just under 200,000 cartons of pineapples were passed for export from SA, according to the department of agriculture, land reform & rural development stats, with 75.8% of those going to the Middle East. The next-biggest consumer of South African pineapples was the EU (17.43%), followed by other African countries (5.96%), the UK (0.57%) and Russia (0.2%). The document offers advice for consumers: pineapples have a better quality when stored at 12°C-14°C.
Back to the Bathurst Agricultural
Show. How do you judge a pineapple?
Talk of the Town asked Lee Botha, who is secretary of the PGA.
“Farmers will be bringing in their fruit for the competition on the Thursday,” Botha said.
“Immediately it is divided into market fruit [tops left on], and canning fruit.”
The canning fruit is classified into grade 1 and grade 2.
“Shape is the main initial criterion for the canning fruit category. We’re looking for uniform, cylindrical fruit.
“When it comes to the market fruit category, it’s also appearance – the best fruit to buy when you’re shopping for a pineapple.
“The best fruit to buy off the shelf is 50/50.” In other words, the skin should be half green, half orangey yellow.”
If it’s too ripe, it loses nutritional value.
Then the judges move on to taste. And here things get quite technical.
One of the gauges for pineapples (and other fruit) is degrees Brix (or just Brix). Plant physiology measurement specialists Felix Instruments explain that Brix is a way to measure the maturity of fruit.
“Degrees Brix or °Brix [Brix] is a measure of the total soluble solids [TSS] present in the fruit. TSS is mainly made up of sugars but also includes other compounds. The total soluble solids are made up of sugars, which can be monosaccharides, disaccharides, or oligosaccharides, such as sucrose, fructose, etc.” Back to Bathurst.
Judging of the pineapples takes place on Friday morning (March 22), and Friday evening is the industry’s cocktail party and prize-giving.
What’s in it for the public?
First, a magnificent display of pineapples: wall to wall, it’s like a library-full of amazing spiky fruit. Including the freakiest ones.
And then you can enjoy fresh pineapple juice, and pineapple pieces.
Best of all, there’s a good chance you’ll meet Botha, who is friendly, fun and knowledgeable – with good stories to tell about pineapples!
Top tip: What’s the best way to store a pineapple once you’ve bought it?
“It all depends on how ripe the fruit is. Room temperature is fine while 30% ripe,” Botha said.
“I always take a 50% ripe pine home, peel, slice and keep in the fridge.”
Some pineapple facts
● Pineapples were a lucky find for farmers in the Bathurst area which gets rain for most of the year, so they aren’t entirely dependent on irrigation.
● Pineapples are grown and harvested according to a carefully planned rolling schedule throughout the year.
● In subtropical Ndlambe and Makana, pineapples take longer to grow. That makes them higher in acidity and flavour – good qualities for juice concentrate.
● In the Eastern Cape, mostly cayenne pineapples are grown for processing to make juice concentrate for export.
● Queen pineapples are mostly grown for the fresh fruit market.
—