OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE Feb 25 2008
Guayaquil, Ecuador
February 25, 2008
During 2007, Ecuador processed 225,000 metric tons of passion fruit, compared to 200,000 MT of fruit during 2006. This is an increase of 13% vis-à-vis previous year.
Crop forecast for the rest of 2008
Wide areas of the country have been hit by the heavy rains during this year. Furthermore due to the natural aging of the passion fruit vines the harvest in 2008 is expected to be smaller than last year.
According to preliminary estimates the total harvest for 2008 would be 180,000 metric tons of fresh fruit available for processing. Due to the rainy season the harvest is expected to remain low until April, and from May onwards it should start recovering.
Sincerely,
EPPA,
The Ecuadorian Passion Fruit Processor's Association
Disclaimer: EPPA, Ecuadorian Passion Fruit Processors Association, is a non-profit, pre-association that solely relies on its current members and sources who willingly and voluntarily agree to supply the information to make this report. If any information can not be supplied by one of the active producing factories, we will use the data figures obtained from the exports statistics supplied by either the Central bank of Ecuador or the Empresa de Manifiestos and convert that into raw fruit data. EPPA, nor any of its members, writers, friends or anyone involved directly or indirectly with EPPA can guarantee or verify the authenticity of this information, and they are therefore not liable or held responsible of any claim arising from of its past, current or future use or misuse by anyone. We reserve the right to make any changes of this report at any time.
For more information please contact us by tel +593-9-870 8331
* Above figures are approximated and correspond only to fruit processed for the industrial production of passion fruit juice and concentrate in Ecuador. It takes as average 12 kilograms of fresh fruit to produce one kilogram of 50 brix concentrate.