Pineapple
Product Description
Pineapple is a delicious and nutritious fruit with a juicy sweet flavor. It is native to the tropics and grows to a height of 1.2 meters. Contrary to other tropical fruit, the pineapple takes a long time to mature. Depending on variety, it may take 12-14 months to flower and another 6 - 8 months to develop into a ripe fruit. Its stiff, spikey leaves grow out from a basal rosette from where the white or purple flowers develop.
As each flower matures into a small fruit, the entire mass of the individual fruits fuse together into the large structure which we have come to appreciate as a pineapple. Each fruitlet can still be identified as an "eye". The fruit size varies from 1 - 4 kg, depending on variety.
To ensure that the harvested pineapples are “ready-to-eat”, the sugar acid ratio is tested in the field to determine the optimum ripeness.
History
The pineapple was apparently domesticated by the Guarani Indians who made their home in what is now Paraguay and Brazil. From there it spread throughout South America until Christopher Columbus supposedly discovered it on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Spaniards took the pineapple to the Phillipines and Hawaii, while the Portuguese are credited with having introduced it to India and West Africa. In the beginning of the 19th century many different varieties were still cultivated throughout the world.
A very successful variety was originally cultivated by Indians in Venezuela and it became known as “Smooth Cayenne”. This variety dominated the trade for many years before demand for fresh pineapple lead to the development of the MD2 hybrid, which is known for its sweetness, as well as uniformity and consistency in size and ripeness. MD-2 has now replaced Smooth Cayenne world-wide except for some regional production in Africa.
