The inside story

The current passion fruit situation in Ecuador can be referred to as good. The peak crop during August - September was excellent, at last providing some relief to the market after 2 extremely tight years.

In Ecuador passion fruit is harvested 12 months a year with 3 main crops. A small one in December - January, another one in March - April with the peak crop during August - September.

For the upcoming December 2010 - January 2011 crop we expect the fruit availability to be very good again, which will allow the market to buy product at favourable prices until the end of the first quarter of 2011. However, after 2 excellent crops it is expected, based on the findings of our team of agronomists, that after May 2011 the fruit intake will decrease significantly. The decrease could be as much as 20%, which inevitably will put pressure on both the availability and price of the fresh fruit. As a result this increase in pressure will be reflected in both the availability and price of NFC or concentrate for the second half of 2011.