World Luxury Fruits: The $396 pineapple is tucked into an ornate red box that twists like origami and is punched with breathing holes. The $156 watermelon, wrapped in foam netting, grew alone on a vine from which every other fruit had been cut, with the aim of making it sweeter.
Luxury fruits, including A A long history In parts of Asia, it is gaining popularity in the United States, as new varieties are being grown and imported, developed over the years by companies aiming to market unique-looking and unique-tasting produce. This $396 pineapple — as a trademark RubyGlow for its red skin, and extremely limited — recently sold out in the United States in just a few weeks.
Some fruits have long been given as gifts, especially in Japan and Korea. That trend is catching on in the United States, as are the impeccable berry and watermelon flavors tourists may have tried abroad, produce experts said. and as the luxury goods industry has developedThere is also interest in luxury fruits, said Soyeon Shim, a scholar of consumer and financial behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The market has become more global,” she said. “You can buy anything you want,” Ms. Shim added.
Eve Touro-Paul, an author and expert on global food trends, describes luxury fruits as one of the “couture food experiences” through which people tried to make value statements. “In the last 10 years especially, global food culture has become homogenized,” she said. “How do you continue to one-up other people in this kind of food environment?”
In recent decades, unique produce — including a $156 watermelon known as a crown melon; Special grapes Valued from South Korea for their large size and crisp texture; white Strawberries From Japan; And MangosteensThe tropical fruit — with soft white flesh — is imported into the United States, said Robert Schuyler, a spokesman for Melissa’s produce, which describes itself as the country’s largest distributor of specialty fruits and vegetables.
The company’s efforts to introduce unfamiliar fruits to the American palate, however, have not always been successful, he added. This Star apple, a deep purple fruit native to the Caribbean and Central America; This oca, a popular yam in New Zealand; And A Square watermelon — which, despite “slicing like toast,” lacked the best flavor — failed to take off at all, Mr. Schuyler said. (Melissa is now working with a grower in Costa Rica to develop both box and sweet melons.)
For most Americans, however, luxuries remain out of reach: The average household spends about $1,080 on groceries each month. A recent analysis Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And even for those who can afford it, can a pineapple ever be worth a dishwasher?
“There’s no reason to ever spend $400 on a single fruit,” said David Karp, a fruit researcher at the University of California, Riverside.
Mr. Karp, who is known for Hunt for a rare product, said that while he had not yet sampled Rubiglo, there was nothing in the pineapple patent to suggest that it was much better than common varieties. But in some cases, it was worth spending a more modest premium on the tastiest, seasonal produce, he added. “You can get mind-blowingly good fruit,” Mr. Karp said, “for $10 or $20 a pound.”
Here are some of the fancy fruits available in the United States:
Designer Pineapple
Pineapple, a tropical fruit native to South America, has historically been a luxury product in the United States and Europe, symbolizing Imperialismpower and Opulence. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that a plantation in Hawaii made the fruit more widely accessible throughout North America.
In recent years, a handful of unique, higher-priced pineapples have been introduced to the United States, including Elefante Green Gold Pineapple, which is native to Ghana and has a white flesh, edible core, low acidity and is shipped in boxes due to its tendency to tumble. It costs about $26. The PinkGlow pineapple, grown in Costa Rica, was genetically engineered by Fresh Del Monte for its candy-pink flesh and low acidity. It was introduced in 2019 for around $50 and now costs up to $29 depending on the size.
This year, after 16 years of development, Del Monte, which distributes the product globally, introduced the Rubiglo pineapple, which has a red outer shell and sweet yellow flesh, to China and the United States. The high prices are partly because only a few thousand of the fruit were grown this year, but the company said prices are likely to drop as production increases. PinkGlow or RubyGlow, both sold by Melissa’s Produce, come with crowns that can be used to grow more pineapples.
A singular melon
Crown melon, fragrant and sweet, is a distinctive muskmelon from Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture, which has a warm, sunny climate. Each vine is pruned to grow Only one fruitConcentrated watermelon flavor.
In Japan, watermelons – which have a netted rind, lime green flesh and are analyzed for sugar content before being sold – are traditionally given as gifts. Each comes inside a box with its T-shaped stem as a reminder of the growing process. Watermelon was just recently Approved for import in the United States, and may incur costs $156 per fruit.
Although many US buyers are already familiar with watermelon, it is gaining wider popularity, Ayako Yuki said. Ikigai fruits, which imports fruit and other luxury Japanese products to the United States. Social media influencers have also helped introduce luxury products to the global market, she added. “They are really excited to try the first bite,” Ms Yuki said.
Coddled strawberries
A pound of nonorganic strawberries usually costs only a few dollars. A luxury berry can cost as much or even more – up to approx $29 each.
Luxury fruit importer Ikigai sells a Diversity Red, pink and white strawberries imported from Japan in boxes ranging from $89 to $780. A typical package costs about $128 and contains 30 large strawberries, the company said. The berries – grown in greenhouses and picked when fully ripe and sweet – are sometimes Individually swaddled To protect them from bumps and bruises.
In 2018, Pillow, a US-based company, began selling Japanese-style strawberries grown at its indoor vertical farm in New Jersey. Berries, which were made TikTok famous, initially sold for about $100 a pound (about $5 a strawberry) but now costs a fifth of that, said Hiroki Koga, Oishii’s chief executive. “Our goal is not to sell luxury fruit,” he said, adding that the berries are proof of concept that great-tasting produce can be grown on vertical farms.
Other US-grown strawberries, though still premium, can come with a less shocking price tag than imported berries. Harry’s BerryOrganic strawberries grown in Oxnard, Calif., currently cost about $15 to $20 a pound, and at best, they’re also very sweet, produce experts said.
More varieties of mangoes
Mango was a tropical fruit native to Asia Introduced in Florida In the 1800s. But to date, methods of growing, harvesting and importing means that mangoes most common In the United States can often be very firm, stringy or sour.
In recent decades, however, the US Department of Agriculture has allowed imports from other countries, including India, and Colombia. Some premium mangoes are also grown in Florida and California, although they are not always available in other states. “Some people think a mango is a mango,” said Mr. Schuyler of Melissa’s Produce. “They don’t all taste the same.”
This pink elephant The mango, from Vietnam and sold by Melissa, is the newest of the imported varieties, Mr. Schuyler said. A single fruit, weighing as much as two pounds, can cost up to about $25. Another variety, The Miyazaki MangoAlso known as the “egg of the sun” and imported from Japan by another retailer, it is listed at $95 for one fruit.
“On the surface, this seems really unsustainable,” Ms. Turo-Paul, a food trend expert, said of luxury fruit imports into the United States, noting that part of what made some fruits so expensive was their distance. had traveled
But she said she hopes US-grown fruits can get the same excitement. “There are all kinds of crazy; Deliciously beautiful things that we just don’t celebrate,” Ms Turo-Paul said.
“People are open to eating new and new things,” she added.