Imagine we have $10 million to spend on a fancy dining experience. It could be a caviar lunch or a multi-course meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant. And maybe all of it is spent on a pineapple...

Melissa's Produce, which sells everything from truffles to mangosteens to kumquats, describes its latest Rubyglow Pink Pineapple on its website as a "rare gem" and "the pinnacle of luxury fruit," adding that "for the gourmet, it's an unforgettable gift."

Americans, and later the world, including Vietnam, have taken a particular interest in new fruits in recent years. Consumers have paid higher prices for Honeycrisp apples, Milk Grapes, Cotton Candy Grapes, Sumo Citrus Mandarins, and Japanese Oishii Strawberries. Now they're craving different fruits and are willing to pay for exciting new options.

This "limited edition" pineapple grown in Costa Rica costs nearly $400 per fruit.

It took a decade and a half to develop the fruit, which has a distinctive red appearance and a taste described as sweet as honey, and sells for $395.99 at Melissa's Produce, a California-based specialty fruit and vegetable store. It's a hybrid Rubyglow pineapple, and the first harvest was earlier this year. But it may not be the best time to market a very expensive fruit in a U.S. where consumers are still worried about inflation and unemployment.

According to Food & Wine magazine, soaring grocery prices have made headlines, stressing consumers and squeezing their budgets. Melissa started with 50 pineapples, according to Robert Schueller, director of public relations at Melissa's Produce. So far, they've sold about half within a month, including to restaurants in Las Vegas and Southern California.

Consumers are willing to pay for something special.

“Consumers are willing to pay for something special,” says Cindy van Rijswick, fresh produce strategist for Rabobank’s global research team. When it comes to specialty products, “there’s always a niche market for high-end restaurants, gourmets or certain online channels.” But marketing new products is expensive. Researchers have to breed and crossbreed, wait for the growth cycle, and start again if the fruit doesn’t perform.

Finding something that’s both tasty and resilient enough to be commercially successful takes time and a lot of work. Then plant scientists have to convince growers to invest in an unproven fruit, taking resources that might otherwise be spent on old favorites.

When Honeycrisp apples were introduced more than 30 years ago, for example, there weren’t many apple options in supermarkets. Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and in some areas, McIntosh apples were the mainstream varieties, recalls Jim Luby, a professor of horticultural sciences at the University of Minnesota. Unless you went to an orchard in the country, you didn’t have much choice. People were craving more, and Honeycrisp fit the bill—sweet, crisp, and novel. “There weren’t many growers, so it was priced high,” says Luby, who was part of the team that developed the variety. “But it was always sold out.”

Cotton Candy grapes are named for their sweetness.

Since the success of the premium apple, the diversity of the produce sector has increased. Over the past decade, per capita supplies of higher-priced fruits, such as berries, and tropical fruits such as longans, lychees, mangoes and avocados have increased, according to Rabobank, based on USDA data. In that time, supplies of cheaper fruits such as apples and bananas have remained largely unchanged, while some specialty fruits have become popular.

Cotton Candy grapes, named for their sweet taste, appeared in 2011 and quickly gained popularity. Sumo Citrus, a hybrid of a clementine and a mandarin, was a latecomer but has exploded in recent years. Oishii’s specialty strawberries, grown in temperature-controlled greenhouses, first hit the market in 2018 for $50 for a box of eight.

For this Japanese fruit company, each berry is packaged in a fancy box that highlights each individual fruit, like a package of handmade chocolates. “Even at $50, we still have thousands of people on our waiting list,” says Oishii CEO Hiroki Koga.

Oishii's specialty strawberries, grown in temperature-controlled greenhouses.

The same goes for the pineapple market. Del Monte’s researchers have been creating different varieties of pineapples for years, “carefully” refining their appearance and optimizing their flavor. In 2020, the company launched a cute, giftable fruit called the Pinkglow pineapple, which has a pink interior and comes in a special box for each fruit. At first, the Pinkglow sold for around $50. Today, you can buy one for much less, between $8 and $29—a relative bargain but still a lot for a pineapple.

Melanie Zanoza Bartelme, associate director of Mintel Food & Drink, says that while many people might not think a Rubyglow pineapple is worth $400, there is still a group of people who are willing to pay for it, if not for the taste, then for its vibrant appearance. “I think on the table at Christmas, Thanksgiving—you’re going to see this pink pineapple as a centerpiece, especially in a high-end home,” she said. “In other words, people are going to spend money just to show off that they have something special.”

Last July, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development granted permission for US peaches and nectarines to be replanted in California and imported into the Vietnamese market after five years of negotiations. Speaking at the ceremony to welcome the first batch of peaches and nectarines on August 14, Mr. Marc Gilkey, Director of the South Asia region of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, US Department of Agriculture (APHIS), shared that Vietnam currently has eight types of fresh fruits permitted to be exported to the US, including dragon fruit, mango, longan, lychee, rambutan, star apple, grapefruit, and coconut. The US side hopes to continue to create momentum for the development of cooperation by expanding the market for Vietnamese passion fruit in the near future.

Source: VnEconomy