If you tried to buy fresh pineapple or your favorite pineapple juice lately and it seemed pricier—or just out of stock—you’re not alone. The global pineapple market is in a tight spot right now, with a major shortage rippling across shelves and juice bars. Let’s break down what’s going on and why this everyday fruit has suddenly become a hot commodity.
Why Pineapples Are Suddenly Harder to Find
You might not think much about where pineapples come from or how they get from the farm to your table. But weather, shipping, and even hacking events can all affect whether you get your Piña Colada this summer. Right now, most of the world’s fresh pineapples and processed products like juice or canned chunks come from just a handful of tropical countries. When something goes wrong in those places, the whole market feels it fast.
How Climate Has Hit the Crops
Probably the biggest problem this year is the weather. Pineapple farmers in Thailand and the Philippines have been hit hard by drought. These tropical regions are usually pretty reliable for growing pineapples, but not when rainfall drops way below normal. If you can picture what happens to your houseplants when you forget to water them, imagine that happening on a national scale, with millions of fruiting plants in parched fields. No water means weaker or smaller fruit—and far fewer pineapples overall.
Thailand is usually the world’s top producer of pineapple juice concentrate. Earlier this year, the harvest in Thailand fell almost 40% below what growers had expected. Even when the “peak” pineapple season rolled around, the country only managed about 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes per day, when they’d need more like 6,000 tonnes to keep up with normal demand. The gap is huge, and there’s just no easy way to make that up quickly.
Costa Rica, which leads global production for fresh pineapples and direct juice, had its share of weather trouble, too. In 2023, El Niño made things unusually dry, stressing pineapple plants heavily. Right after that, weather flipped the other way—La Niña moved in with intense, constant rain, which only made things worse. The plants need consistent, moderate conditions to thrive, not wild swings between drought and flooding.
For farmers, it’s a frustrating cycle that’s hard to predict. Often, the bad season means less fruit both right away and into the next year, since pineapples take time to mature. It’s not as simple as just replanting more.
Other Problems in the Supply Chain
You’d think if the weather wasn’t ideal, maybe the industry could just work a little harder or ship pineapples from elsewhere. It’s not so simple. This year, a mix of logistical snags, labor gaps, and unexpected setbacks have only made things worse.
For starters, Dole, one of the biggest names in the fruit business, got hit by a ransomware attack this year. Their computer systems went down, and it wasn’t just a matter of re-sending an email or two—it stopped shipments for days across North America. In an industry where every hour counts, even a short disruption can leave produce sitting somewhere it can’t last long. It’s the kind of event that, combined with an existing shortage, pushes an already tense market into even more chaos.
Shipping has been bumpy, too. Global supply chains haven’t really settled back into a reliable groove since the pandemic. Shortages of shipping containers meant space was tight, and freight rates spiked. Ships lingered longer at ports, which delayed fruit reaching stores worldwide. All these little delays add up, making pineapples both harder to find and more expensive in faraway countries.
Labor shortages are another piece of the puzzle. Harvesting pineapples takes a lot of people on the ground, often in remote areas. Some workers have moved on to other jobs, or can’t travel back home due to border restrictions or health rules still left over from COVID-19. If there aren’t enough people to pick and pack the fruit, growers can’t make the most of what little crop they have left.
What’s Happened to Prices?
It probably won’t surprise you that prices shot up. Across the board, you’ll pay more for pineapples—fresh or processed—than you did just a few months ago. For juice makers, the numbers are especially eye-popping.
A tonne of concentrated pineapple juice now costs more than $5,000 USD. That’s a price hike that squeezes everyone from juice bottlers down to the corner smoothie shop. Direct juice—meaning juice pressed straight from the fruit, not as a concentrate—jumped up to about $1,300 USD per tonne, which is about 50% higher than it was just half a year ago.
In Thailand, where locals are used to pineapples being cheap and plentiful, the price for fruit sold to factories rose to around 14 baht per kilogram (that’s up from roughly 7 baht a year ago). Some places have seen prices even double, which is enough that you might treat pineapple more like a special treat than a throw-in fruit salad.
These increases send a ripple through the whole food industry. Restaurant chains have started offering fewer pineapple options, and juice brands have had to shrink bottle sizes or stop production entirely for certain lines. It’s not just fruit stands feeling the squeeze—it’s soda companies, ice cream makers, and even some craft brewers relying on pineapple as a flavor.
How Industry Structure Affects Resilience
The pineapple trade isn’t all run by a handful of global companies. Sure, brands like Del Monte and Dole are big, but there are also many smaller producers and mid-sized processors, especially on the juice and canned goods side. This matters because the little guys don’t always have the financial wiggle room to ride out big swings in costs. Sometimes, small juice processors have to shut down production when raw pineapple prices get too high, even if consumers are still looking to buy.
Even so, most of the world’s pineapples come from just a few countries. Thailand is still the main source of juice concentrate, followed by the Philippines and Indonesia. If you’re buying canned pineapple or a bottle of concentrate, odds are good it passed through one of these countries. Costa Rica leads for “direct juice” and fresh pineapples shipped around the world—think of those big, sweet pineapples you see in North American supermarkets.
Pineapples can’t be grown just anywhere. The plants need tropical conditions, warm temperatures, and the right kind of soil. That limits commercial-scale farming to parts of Asia, Central America, and a few areas in Africa and Indonesia. So even if demand is high, there’s no quick way to set up new farms somewhere else. Expanding into new regions takes years of planning that can’t solve this season’s shortage.
Why the Shortage Will Stick Around for a While
Most experts expect these challenges to last at least through the end of the year, if not longer. Pineapples don’t grow overnight—a new planting can take up to 18 to 24 months before it’s ready to harvest. So even if growing conditions suddenly improve, the market won’t bounce back right away.
The biggest pain point is for processed products—juice, concentrate, and canned pineapple. These have longer shelf lives, but rely on huge, consistent harvests to keep production lines running. Right now, some factories are running at half-capacity, or pausing entirely when there’s just not enough fruit to keep going. Fresh pineapple fans will also notice fewer options and higher prices, but the shortages hit hardest in the processed aisle.
Several importers and distributors say they’re keeping an eye on upcoming harvests, but don’t expect a quick fix. The combination of weather, logistics, and labor issues just isn’t going away overnight. As prices remain high, some businesses are looking for temporary alternatives or reformulating products to use less pineapple—though that’s not always a hit with customers who like things just the way they are.
If you’re interested in how global food markets adapt to shortages like this, there’s a lot more reporting and analysis available through sites like Daily Business Voice, where topics like supply chain challenges and commodity prices are tracked over time.
What It Means for Pineapple Fans (and Everyone Else)
For casual shoppers, you’ll probably see fewer pineapples piled up in the produce aisle—and higher price tags when you do spot them. You might notice your favorite juice blend changing, or prices creeping up for a bottle of pineapple juice at the café. At restaurants, chefs and bar owners are getting creative with other fruits for sweet-sour flavor, or asking customers to pay a bit more for that tropical twist.
Longer term, the shortage could encourage more research into weather-proof farming methods or even new pineapple-growing regions. But for right now, it’s mostly about patience and adjusting expectations. If pineapples are on your grocery list or you run a business that counts on them, planning ahead and shopping around can make a difference, but everyone’s feeling the pinch.
A Real-World Update (Not a Dramatic Farewell)
So, if you’re wondering whether it’s worth grabbing that extra can of pineapple at the supermarket, the honest answer is: things might stay tight (and pricey) for a while. The pineapple industry, much like many others these days, is working through a mess of challenges— from weather swings and tech roadblocks to not enough hands in the field.
We’ll keep watching what unfolds. In the meantime, maybe savor that next pineapple treat just a little more than usual. It’s not every year pineapple becomes a luxury fruit, but for now, that’s just how things are shaking out.
