Current Thai pineapple season

Final figures are starting to emerge on the Thai summer (April) crop. The 2007 supply came in at 1.5 million tons, 40% below than in 2006 and lower even than the 1.7 million tons projected just a month ago. The primary cause is lack of rainfall and diversion of the planting areas for production of sugar for biofuels. Measurements of rainfall show an average 90% decrease for the first quarter of 2007, with the Rayong growing areas showing a dramatic 95% rainfall reduction. Quality is also down as much fruit was dried and burnt by the sun. In Indonesia, farmers went 115 days without any rainfall in the autumn of 2006 (due to El Nino), only to be flooded out by torrential rains a few months later. Demand increased concurrently due to Maui's exit from the market and the general shortages of other cheap fruit products (especially from U.S. packers; i.e. fruit cocktail, etc). Couple the severe shortage in supply with the increased demand and expect 2007 to be one of the toughest years ever in the pineapple market. Furthermore, the US government declined two months ago to revoke the anti-dumping duties currently in place (even though there's no more domestic industry to protect). As a result, packers are legally not allowed to "dump" and for this reason they are increasing prices on even previously concluded contracts. They claim that if old prices are not canceled and renegotiated, they'll be retroactively charged prohibitive anti-dumping duties on these shipments and be expelled from the U.S. market for future shipments, based on these same prohibitive duties. With the tremendous consolidation of pineapple packers that resulted from the anti-dumping order begun in 1995, options are limited to changing prices or exiting the pineapple market. Lastly, to add insult to injury, the Thai currency has fallen 12% against the dollar since a year ago.