Farm-fresh pineapples from India can soon be seen in the global market with the commissioning of the integrated pineapple pack house at Nadaukkara (40 kms from here) near Muvattupuzha.
The pack house will help in securely packing farm-fresh pineapples and thereby reduce waste during transportation, which damages more than 30-40% of the fruits. The cargo can also be dispatched through sea and help in reducing the cost of the fruit in the global market.
Kerala produces more than 3 lakh tonne of pineapples annually and in the peak production season prices tend to drop sharply due to lack of marketing channels.
Nadukkara Agro Processing Company Limited (NAPCL), a public sector enterprise based in Nadaukkara, the heartland of pineapple cultivation in Kerala, is constructing the plant with a grant from Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda).
The pack house facilities include pre-cooling chambers and two storage chambers, technical features required as per the pre and post-harvest protocol for export of fresh pineapple by sea.
?Pineapples are easily damaged during transportation and cannot be shipped to long destinations because of its very low shelf life,? K Sasikumar, managing director of NAPCL told FE.
Usually more than 30% of the pineapples harvested in a year are damaged during transportation. Air cargo is expensive and many times costly when compared to the sea route. With the new system in place for packing the fruits, the cargo can be easily taken through the sea route to nearby global markets, Sasikumar said.
?During the pre-cooling stage, farm-heat of the fruit is removed. This will retard all the bio-chemical actions and the fruit will become dormant and it will be stored in cool chambers. Vapor absorption technology with very low electricity consumption is adopted for the refrigeration equipment,? he added.
Nine kilograms of pineapple will be packed in a box. The protocol of the pack house has been developed with the assistance of CIRAD, a French agricultural research centre working for international development. Other exporters in the State can also use of this facility by paying a fee.
Sasikumar says that the Indian pineapples can effectively compete in the West Asian market which is dominated by Philippines and Sri Lanka. NAPCL has been so far exporting only processed pineapple products such as pineapple juice concentrate.
A study by NAPCL revealed that 40 containers of pineapple are imported to Dubai per month from Philippines and Sri Lanka. ?Diversifying our market through exports and securing longer shelf life will help pineapple farmers in Kerala beat the volatile market of the fruit,? Sasikumar said. NAPCL was established with the support of the European Union and mainly produces ready-to-drink fruit juices and concentrates.
NAPCL procures pineapple from the farmers in the region for fixed price based on a contract. This helps the farmers to sell their produce at reasonable rates even when there is a fall in market price due market surplus. Pineapple farmers of the region have 70% of the share of the company with the state government owning the rest.
