The World of Luxury Fruits: Does a $156 Melon Taste Sweeter?
A $396 pineapple is tucked inside an ornate red box that unfolds like origami and is peppered with breathing holes. A $156 melon, wrapped in foam, grew alone on a vine from which all other fruit was pruned, in order to make it extra sweet.
Luxury fruits, which a Long history in parts of Asia, are becoming increasingly popular in the United States as new varieties are grown and imported, including those developed over several years by companies focused on marketing products that look and taste unique. The $396 pineapple — registered as a trademark Ruby red because of its red skin, and extremely limited – recently selling out in the United States within a few weeks.
Some of the fruits have long been given as gifts, especially in Japan and Korea. That trend is catching on in the United States, as is the taste for pristine berries and melons that travelers may have tried abroad, product experts said. And since the luxury goods industry has grownand interest in luxury fruit is also increasing, said Soyeon Shim, a consumer and financial behavior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The market has become much more global,” she said. Ms Shim added: “you can buy anything you want.”
Eve Turow-Paul, author and expert on global food trends, described luxury fruit as one of the “couture food experiences” through which people tried to make value statements. “Especially in the past decade, the global food culture has become homogenized,” she says. “How do you continue to give other people an edge in this type of food environment?”
In recent decades, unique products have emerged, including the $156 cantaloupe known as Crown Melon; special grapes from South Korea prized for their large size and crunchy texture; white strawberries from Japan; and mangosteensa tropical fruit with soft white flesh, has been imported into the United States, said Robert Schueller, spokesman for Melissa’s Produce, which describes itself as the nation’s largest distributor of specialty fruits and vegetables.
However, the company’s efforts to introduce unfamiliar fruits to the American palate have not always been successful, he added. star apple, a deep purple fruit native to the Caribbean and Central America; the ocaa yam popular in New Zealand; and a square watermelon – which, while “cutting like toast,” didn’t have superior flavor – all fell through, Mr. Schueller said. (Melissa’s is now working with a grower in Costa Rica to develop a watermelon that’s both box-shaped and sweet.)
For the vast majority of Americans, however, luxury fruits remain out of reach: According to a study from the University of California (NYSE: CNRS), the average household spends about $1,080 per month on groceries. recent analysis from data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And even for those who can afford it, can a pineapple ever be worth the cost of a dishwasher?
“There’s no reason to ever spend $400 for one fruit,” says David Karp, a fruit researcher at the University of California, Riverside.
Mr. Karp, who is known for hunting for rare products, said that although he had not yet tasted the Rubyglow, there was nothing in the pineapple’s patent to indicate that it was much superior to regular varieties. But in some cases it was worth it to spend a more modest premium on the most delicious seasonal produce, he added. “You can get stunningly delicious fruit,” Mr. Karp said, “for $10 or $20 a pound.”
Here are some of the fanciest fruits available in the United States:
Designer pineapples
The pineapple, a tropical fruit native to South America, has traditionally been a luxury product in the United States and Europe and symbolizes imperialismforces wealthIt was not until the early 20th century that the fruit became more widely accessible in North America through a plantation in Hawaii.
In recent years, a handful of unique, higher-priced pineapples have been introduced to the United States, including the Elephant Green Gold Pineapplewhich is native to Ghana and has white flesh, an edible core, low acidity and is shipped in a box due to its tendency to fall over. It costs about $26. The Pinkglow pineapple, grown in Costa Rica, has been 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 size.
This year, after 16 years of development, Del Monte, which distributes products worldwide, introduced the Rubyglow pineapple, which has a red exterior and sweet yellow flesh, in China and the United States. The high price is partly because only a few thousand of the fruit were grown this year, but the company has said the price is likely to fall as production increases. Neither the Pinkglow nor the Rubyglow, both sold by Melissa’s Produce, come with their crowns, which can be used to grow more pineapples.
A special melon
Fragrant and sweet, the Crown Melon is a special melon from Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan, which has a warm, sunny climate. Each vine is pruned to grow just a single fruitwhich concentrates the flavor of the melon.
In Japan, the melon — which has a reticulated skin, lime-green flesh and is analyzed for sugar content before being sold — is traditionally given as a gift. Each melon comes in a box with a T-shaped stem, as a reminder of the growing process. The melon is only recently approved for import to the United States and can cost up to €1000. $156 per fruit.
Although many American buyers are already familiar with the melon, it is gaining popularity, said Ayako Yuki, a spokeswoman for Ikigai fruitswho imports the fruit and other luxury Japanese products to the United States. Social media influencers have also helped introduce luxury products to a global market, she added. “They are really curious to try the first bite,” Ms. Yuki said.
Pampered Strawberries
A pound of non-organic strawberries usually costs just a few dollars. A single fancy berry can cost that much, or even more — up to about $29 each.
Ikigai, the luxury fruit importer, sells one variety of red, pink and white strawberries imported from Japan in cartons ranging from $89 to $780. A typical pack costs about $128 and contains 30 large strawberries, the company says. The berries — grown in greenhouses and picked when they are perfectly ripe and sweet — are sometimes individually swaddled to protect them from bumps and bruises.
In 2018, Oishiia US-based company, started selling Japanese strawberries grown at its indoor vertical farm in New Jersey. The berries, which TikTok famousinitially sold for about $100 a pound (about $5 per strawberry), but now cost about a fifth of that, said Hiroki Koga, Oishii’s CEO. “Our mission is not to sell luxury fruits,” he added, noting that the berries were simply proof that the best-tasting produce could be grown on vertical farms.
Other U.S.-grown strawberries, while still premium, can come with a less shocking price tag than imported berries. Harry’s berriesAccording to fruit and vegetable experts, organic strawberries grown in Oxnard, California, currently cost between $15 and $20 per pound. At their best they are also very sweet.
More types of mangoes
The mango, a tropical fruit from Asia, was introduced in Florida in the 1800s. But to this day, growing, harvesting and importing practices ensure that mangoes most common in the United States it can often be too firm, stringy or sharp.
However, in recent decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved imports from other countries, including India and India Colombia. There are also some premium mangoes grown in Florida and California, although these are not always available in other states. “Some people think a mango is a mango,” says Mr. Schueller of Melissa’s Produce. “They don’t all taste the same.”
The Pink elephant mango, from Vietnam and sold by Melissa’s, is one of the newest imported varieties, Mr. Schueller said. A single fruit, which weighs up to two pounds, can cost about $25. Another variety, the Miyazaki mangoalso known as the “Egg of the Sun” and imported from Japan by another retailer, is listed at $95 for one fruit.
“On the face of it, this seems really unsustainable,” Ms. Turow-Paul, a food trends expert, said of luxury fruit imports into the United States. She noted that part of what made some fruits so expensive was the distance they had traveled.
But she said she hoped American fruit would generate the same excitement. “There’s all sorts of crazy stuff; delicious; there’s beautiful things growing that we just don’t celebrate,” Ms. Turow-Paul said.
She added: “People are open to eating new and novel things.”
