Pineapple sector truly taking root
After decades in the dust there is an upswing in ECape
The Eastern Cape’s pineapple industry has been through thorny financial times over the past few decades, with much of the old lands lying fallow, abandoned by farmers or being used for other crops or grazing.
However, Anthony Albers, chief executive of Summerpride, the East London-based pineapple processing plant, said the plant was processing increasing volumes due to growing farming and factory efficiencies.
Another positive is that farmers have started opening up old lands around Peddie, which could add 70,000 tons a year.
In 2015 Summerpride put 65,000 tons through the factory. By 2018 it was 88,000 tons. The target for 2019 is 97,000 tons.
The factory’s capacity is 110,000 tons, which translates to a turnover of R4.3bn in a year when international prices are at their maximum.
In addition to volume-driven efficiencies, Albers said new discoveries regarding the fruit’s by-products would pump up demand.
While international buyers already know that the Eastern Cape fruit has a unique taste due to its longer growing cycle, making it the perfect blender with other juices, he said that research over the past ten years now proves that pineapples have other unique properties.
In 2009 he read an article on dietary fibre in food processing explaining how fibres bind oil and water as an emulsifier. The main source of emulsifiers is starch but it has a downside: it contains gluten. Pineapples don’t.
“We ran tests on pineapple fibre, which we get from the pulp waste. The tests were encouraging. We decided to put money into it, and for a long time we kept testing in our own laboratory.
“The results of the fibre’s emulsifying potential improved as we got the ratios right, and we scaled up.
“We are now on the brink of having a product that fits what we believe is what international manufacturers and consumers want.
“Mixed with liquid it turns into a jelly-like product, with no impact on the taste.”
Pineapples contain bromelain, a natural anti-inflammatory that is very marketable to the medical industry. Once medical industry product tests were complete, it opens a new sales channel.
The leaves – a byproduct normally ploughed back into the land – contain a cotton-like fibre (microcrystalline cellulose) that had promise in the textile industries.
He said another exciting development showed that microcrystalline cellulose was found to be a binding agent for tablets, which keeps them compact, preventing them from turning to powder in the packaging.
Anything used in medical products needs excellent traceability, he said, which is where Summerpride has an advantage. All fruit delivered to the factory is traceable back to the farm where it was grown.
South Africa produces 6% of the world’s pineapples, with the majority from Thailand (60%) and the balance from the Philippines, Indonesia and Puerto Rico.
“Our two-year growing cycle is much longer than the tropical countries, which are capable of producing two crops a year.”
Pineapple juice has a two-year shelf-life in optimum conditions.
“This allows us to work the market in our favour, but only marginally,” he added.