Juicier and tastier, pink in color, the unique pineapple from the Costa Rican jungle, genetically modified, reaches the world's most exclusive markets and the breakfast of influencers like
Kim Kardashian.
Unique in its kind, the pink pineapple
was born after 17 years of research (2003-2020)
in the laboratories of the company Fresh Del Monte, a hundred-year-old company that markets fruit and vegetables worldwide from Costa Rica.
It is a
variety of genetically modified
(GMO) pineapple that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved in 2016 as safe for consumption.
A Del Monte Fresh worker shows off the insides of a "PinkGlow" pineapple.
Photo: AFP
Since
"PinkGlow"
, its trade name, went on sale at the end of 2020, it has set a trend and is on the lips of many, particularly that of the American model Kim Kardashian, who showed herself on Instagram eating one for breakfast.
"It's
a highly exclusive product
that reaches the most exclusive markets in the world," Michael Calderón, Fresh Del Monte's regional legal director, said at the Buenos Aires packing plant, 200 kilometers south of San José, amid
the Costa Rican jungle.
The United States, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Hong Kong,
among others, are destinations for the pink pineapple.
Paradoxically, the Costa Rican Ministry of Health has not yet issued the authorization for its commercialization in the country
due to bureaucratic delays.
The Fresh Del Monte company has almost 10,000 hectares where it grows pineapple or pineapple in the jungle of Costa Rica.
Photo: AFP
Although the company has
9,283 hectares of pineapple plantations
in Costa Rica , it only projects 200 to cultivate the pink variety in 2023, Calderón said.
Costa Rica "was the country chosen to develop this product due to its
microclimate conditions
that make it ideal for the production of pineapple rosé," he added.
In 2003, the company began a research process
through bioengineering
to alter the genetics of the yellow fruit until it naturally grew pink.
The key is
lycopene, biologist
Helga Rodríguez,
Fresh Del Monte's superintendent of biotechnology,
told AFP .
This compound is a natural pigment that many reddish fruits and vegetables contain. "
We use the laboratory as an alternative method
to the conventional pollen cross procedure," explains Rodríguez.
Lycopene is produced and accumulated during fruit ripening in crops, says the biologist, and when the fruit is harvested it is already pink.
Each pineapple
takes about two years
from planting to harvest.
The presentation of the pink pineapple at the Del Monte Fresh plant in Buenos Aires, Costa Rica. Photo: AFP
"We dedicated many years of research first to generate the variety that would accumulate these amounts of lycopene and then for the selection in the field that would allow us to obtain the materials that we are commercializing today," Mario Ulate-Sánchez, Research Manager, told AFP
. of the company.
In
plantations on the outskirts of Buenos Aires,
workers harvest traditional pineapples and roses from the first light of day.
The fruits arrive at the packing plant, where they are treated to preserve them, classified by type and packaged for destination anywhere in the world.
Fresh Del Monte exports more than
35 million boxes of pineapples
each year, in addition to bananas and melons.
But
the pink pineapple is the latest trend.
"The pink variety has the characteristic of giving a sweeter
taste or sensation
," says Ulate-Sánchez.
One of Del Monte Fresh's plants in Buenos Aires, Costa Rica, where they pack 35 million pineapples per year.
Photo: AFP
The pink pineapple
is sold through e-commerce
.
In the United States, its price varies between 11 and 39 dollars per unit.
In Europe it can be purchased in Spain for 34 euros.
Prices vary in each country
, but the exclusivity of what is known as the Costa Rican "jewel of the jungle" has given rise to talk.
Influencers from all over the world unwrap pink pineapples for their cameras to the delight of their followers on social media.
"Eating a pink pineapple
is a unique experience
, beyond the color. Its flavor is very particular (...). It represents that exotic taste typical of the variety," says Ulate-Sánchez.
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