Japan as a New Market for Malaysian Pineapples

Malaysia is one of the important countries for the world’s pineapple industry. In 2017, Malaysia was ranked number 19 as the top pineapple producing country, and number five as the top exporter of pineapples in the world. Every year Malaysia produces more than 350,000 Mt of pineapples. Around 30% of fresh pineapples and 95% of canned pineapples are exported to many countries. Singapore, Western Arabs, Brunei and Hong Kong are the traditional markets for Malaysia’s pineapples. The Malaysian government looks at Japan as a new potential market and has started to negotiate with Japan to get market access. On the other hand, Japan is one of the leading importers of fresh pineapples in the world. Japan imported more than US$130.3 million of pineapples in 2018, which is representing 4.8% of the world imported values (US$ 2.73 billion). Malaysia gets the approval to enter the Japanese market in 2015, and since then, started very aggressively to penetrate this market. This paper identifies the market scenario, consumer preferences and exports protocol quarantine, including post-harvest techniques that could create opportunities for fresh and value-added pineapples from Malaysia to Japan.