Global competition
With their rich reserve of land assets, TPC originally focused their business on pineapple sales. Four years ago, after almost half a century focusing on pineapple processing and canning, they decided to move into the fresh pineapple market, setting their sights on the Japanese market.
As Ho says, in the export market one is up against the world, and Taiwan's pineapples share the shelves with ones from Costa Rica, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Hawaii. All vie for attention in terms of price, appearance, and quality. This is the bloody reality TPC faces.
It's not the business side that's difficult-the Japanese are quick to place orders after seeing Taiwan's pineapple farms and packing processes. The problem is more that while Japanese consumers are familiar with and appreciate the flavor of Taiwan's bananas, Taiwanese pineapples are something new. In the past Taiwanese pineapples held only 2% of the Japanese market, with most of their pineapples being from the Philippines.
"Good fruit is high in both sugar and acidity. Pingtung's pineapples are at their best from March through May-by June they're too ripe and the acidity starts to drop. Eating pineapple that's all sweetness without sourness is like eating candy, and all sourness with no sweetness is like sucking on a lemon," explains Ho. "But while the proportion of sweetness to acidity can be measured and tested, there's no real way to tell fiber level and flavor aside from trying the pineapple. So we still really need to promote our pineapples in the Japanese market so they can see what's so good about them."
Additionally, Japanese consumers don't do like the Taiwanese and rap on pineapples to judge their quality by the sound. Instead, because the Japanese prefer to cut down on organic waste in their cities and ordinary consumers prefer not to hack into the pineapples themselves, most pineapples are first sent to harbor-side factories where they're peeled and packed before heading to the supermarkets.
What people in one culture are used to eating can be immensely different to what those in another are used to, so the biggest problem for Taiwanese pineapples is that the big international companies that supply the Japanese market use quality control methods that are more suited to Philippine pineapples than to Taiwanese pineapples.
As Ho says, there are some things that definitely work in Taiwan's favor-it only takes four days for shipments to travel from Taiwan to Japan, as opposed to an average of eight from the Philippines, for example. With this shorter shipping time, Taiwanese farmers can send more fully matured pineapples "fresh to the market." "Another point is that the cores and crowns of Taiwan's pineapples are smaller, which means about 67% of the fruit is edible, whereas once you top and core Philippine ones, there's only about 56% left."
Taiwan excels in production technology, but packaging and shipping are areas that still need to be strengthened, and it is these aspects that are most vital to successfully cracking the foreign market. Harvested pineapples go through a long process to get to market; first they're treated for pests, and those that get into pineapple skin cling pretty tight, so part of this process is giving the fruit a hard scrub and a hose down with pressurized water. Next they're washed again and weighed, inspected for appearance, color, crown length, and physical damage. Any damaged fruit are rejected. Keeping them during their week-long journey from harvesting to landfall in Japan is a huge challenge, especially considering all the steps along the way.
"American Washington apples spend 40 days crossing the ocean, but when they reach the consumer, they're still fresh and crisp," says Ho. Obviously packing, refrigeration, and shipping play a huge part in preserving the freshness of fruit.
In addition to pineapples, proclaims Ho, "this plantation is also home to Taiwan's best winter bananas." TPC's Neipu Plantation sits at the foot of Mt. Tawu, 200 meters above sea level, and experiences a drop of ten degrees or more between day and night. This plantation produces delicious fruit, but there's one catch-all it takes is a typhoon coming up from the Hengchun Peninsula to cause major strife.
In earlier times pineapple was primarily canned but in recent years it has begun to move into the fresh fruit market. The boundless pineapple fields of Neipu Township, Pingtung County, are planted with various varieties, each with its own distinctive flavor.