$400 for one pineapple: The rise of luxury fruit

Imagine you have $400 to spend on a luxury dining experience. You might treat yourself to a tin of premium caviar, a bottle or two of very fine wine or a multi-course meal at a high-end restaurant.

Imagine you have $400 to spend on a luxury dining experience. You might treat yourself to a tin of premium caviar, a bottle or two of very fine wine or a multi-course meal at a high-end restaurant. Or you could blow it all on a single pineapple. The Rubyglow pineapple –— bred for its distinctive red exterior and its sweetness — costs $395.99 at Melissa’s Produce, a California-based seller of specialty fruit and veggies. It took Del Monte, a wholesaler which sells a variety of produce but specializes in pineapple, a decade and a half to develop the red-hued fruit. A limited crop was first available in China early this year. Recently, Del Monte decided to see how the item would fare in the United States, and Melissa’s starting selling it at the astronomical price. It may not seem like the best time to market a (very, very) expensive piece of fruit in America. It wasn’t that long ago that soaring grocery prices made headline news, stressing out consumers and stretching their budgets thin. Still nervous about inflation and worried about unemployment, many Americans are now spending less. And yet, there’s interest in premium fruit — enough to convince Del Monte to bring the Rubyglow, which is grown in Costa Rica, stateside. “Consumers are willing to pay for something that’s special,” said Cindy van Rijswick, fresh produce strategist for Rabobank’s global research team. When it comes to specialty produce, “there’s always a small market for higher-end restaurants, or foodies, or certain online channels,” she said.