Prickly-skinned and many-eyed on the outside, sweet and golden yellow on the inside, this variety of pineapple is simply referred to as the Rani in the Indian market. Except for a few states like West Bengal and those in the Northeast that still prefer the pulpier and milder Raja (Cayenne pineapple variety), the Rani holds most of the Indian palate under its spell. Delhi with ambivalent preferences enjoys both Raja and Rani, but Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Latur, Satara, Nagpur, Kota...and even some rural areas are diehard Rani loyalists. The Rani, which belongs to the Queen Culitvar (Mauritius) variety, grown in Vazhakulam and round about, is trucked all the way from central Kerala right to the farthest end of Kashmir, and even hops across the Wagah border to the neighbouring countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan. And these two countries, despite the high transportation costs can’t get enough of the succulent, sweet Rani. There are always enquiries for more, but the logistics of getting the fresh fruit across the border bogs down exports.
Vazhakulam, known as Pineapple City, is a thriving agri-town. Post demonetisation, the pineapple prices had plunged vertiginously, but now it has steadied at Rs 25 to Rs 30 a kg—and farmers are hoping to recover their losses in spite of a weak winter monsoon. As the summer scorches in, the demand for fruits increases. Unlike the seasonal Raja grown in Assam and West Bengal, the Vazhakulam Rani has the advantage of fruiting through the year. Though the pineapple traders still operate from its place of origin in Ernakulam district, the Vazhakulam farmers have spread themselves across Kerala taking with them their knowledge of cultivating the perfect crop.
They take land on lease to cultivate the crop. Traditionally, pineapple is grown as an intercrop during the first three years of rubber replanting, but now it is even grown as a pure crop. According to the Pineapple Farmer’s Association, Kerala has at least 30,000 acres of land under pineapple cultivation whose productivity is 3.25 lakh tonnes per annum and the turnover from the pineapple business is about Rs 700 crore per annum. In 2009, the GI (geographical indicator) was registered for Vazhakulam Pineapples.
There are big and small farmers cultivating pineapple in Kerala. They think that this year, even if the prices are good, it is going to be tough. The rains have failed during the peak harvesting season between September and January. While, two years ago, there was a glut in the market when the prices crashed to less than Rs 13 per kilo. James George, a pineapple farmer in Vazhakulam, says the growers were hoping for a technology developed to dry the fruit in such a situation. “But this year, we are worried productivity will come down considerably because of land unavailability and the decrease in rainfall,” he says.
Pineapples at the village mela
Baby John, 55, who has been growing pineapples for 30 years and now has over 400 acres of crop, recalls that the Vazhakulam farmers were, in the 1960s, also cultivating the Raja pineapple that was supplied to the canning and juicing industry. “There were processing units around here and much of it was being exported to Russia. The Russian markets collapsed, after which we switched over to the Queen variety—and found that there was a good Indian market for this table variety,” he says. “The Vazhakulam variety was developed slowly. We had always supplied to Chennai and Bangalore, but in the ’90s we entered the Mumbai market. Now the Vazhakulam pineapple dominates the market; so is the case in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.”
Jose Thomas is a partner with Classic Pineapple Traders in hilly Thodupuzha of adjoining Idukki district, and has been in the pineapple trading for three decades. “It’s during Ramzan that the demand peaks in Hyderabad and Mumbai. The pineapple enzyme bromelain helps in digestion of proteins; so the Muslim community consumes a lot of fresh pineapples during this period,” he points out. “In places like Mumbai, from the small retail shops to the big five-star restaurants, it is the Vazhakulam pineapple that sells. Only if it is not available does the Raja variety, grown in Karnataka’s Sirsi move into the market. The ones grown in Sirsi and Silguri are best for the juicing and canning industry.”
Trader Vincent Marciline of Zeenath Pineapple sends his pineapples to the Jammu and Kashmir capital. “It is during the beginning of winter and summer there is demand from Srinagar,” he says. “The fruit is harvested at the green stage…before maturity sets in, since it takes about a week to get to Srinagar by truck.”
Altaf Ali, a trader in Srinagar, notes that the price of the pineapple touches Rs 50 to Rs 60 per kilo during the summer. “A slice of pineapple easily sells for Rs 10,” he tells Outlook over phone.
Mumbai-based Organic Manna Exporters is trying to figure out how to get the pineapple to Karachi without the crop rotting during transportation. Sangeeta Janumala of Organic Manna, says small quantities of pineapple goes from Srinagar to Pakistan, but there is a “huge demand” for Rani there. “It takes five days to get to Mumbai,” she points out. “We are thinking of transporting it in reefer containers (refrigerated containers) from here. We are working out the logistics.”
The Rani-Raja tale, like all once-upon-a-time classics, had the royalty coveting this rare fruit at one time. The Portuguese brought the pineapple, along with tapioca, rubber and papaya, with them in the 16th century. It is thought to have been first cultivated only for the royalty before it caught on in a big way. According to Prof P.P. Joy of Pineapple Research Station, the western world discovered pineapple only five centuries ago when the natives of Caribbean Gaudeloupe island served Christopher Columbus the fruit in 1493. They called it ananas (excellent fruit). It can be imagined that Columbus took it back to Europe and perhaps one pineapple survived the ordeal of a long journey his successors took out to England and presented to the king.
It can be arrived at that the royalty of England went crazy over the fruit. They went about trying to cultivate this tropical fruit in temperate England. There is even a painting of King Charles II (reign: 1660-1685) receiving a single pineapple from the royal gardener John Rose, believed to have first been grown in England. There were others, too, quite mad about pineapple like the Earl of Dunmore, who put a giant pineapple into the architecture detail atop the hothouse growing pineapples now known as the Dunmore pineapple or the Dunmore folly. There are other architectural disasters involving the pineapple called the Big Pineapple in Australia and South Africa. Back in Vazhakulam, its people are as mad about their pineapples, but they have as yet not done anything in gravel, stone and water in the name of the fruit.
