Costa Rican pineapple exports grew 11% year-on-year from January through August to 1.38 million metric tons (MT), according to the country's Finance Ministry. 

Shipments to the U.S., the leading market, rose 8% over the period to 703,000MT - representing a little over half of total exports.

Exports to Italy and Belgium rose 22% and 25% respectively, both reaching record figures of around 100,000MT. The U.K. also saw a 13% increase to the same figure MT.

There were significant increases for Portugal, which took around 31,000MT of exports - five-times more than the same period in 2016 - while shipments to Germany nearly tripled to 17,700MT.

Exports to neighboring Nicaragua also exploded from a very low base of 47MT to 11,700MT. 

Meanwhile, exports to the Netherlands, the second-biggest market, declined 5% to 167,000MT and to Spain they dropped 24% to 77,400MT.

Prices at the importer level in the U.S. for supplies of Central America-origin pineapple - which mostly corresponds to Costa Rican fruit - have been declining over recent weeks. In week 38 the average per-box price was US$5.50, compared to US$12.50 in mid-August, according to the data.

The current price level sits 50% below the average of the last three seasons, with the average this year of US$9.70 and US$10.40 in 2016.

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