Pineapple plants can grown up to 6 feet tall, and have a leaf span of up to 5 feet. Each pineapple plant has usually about 35 - 40 long sharply pointed green leaves, each with a very short thick stem. The leaves themselves are very thick, smooth, and waxy, ideal for repelling water and wind.
What most people consider to be a pineapple plant, is actually scientifically categorized in the tree family. The tree is called a bromeliad, residing in the scientific family Bromeliaceae. The scientific classification order is the Poales, and the class is called the Liliopsida. The tree is adapted for the tropics.
Did you know that natives to South America and the islands in the Caribbean used to decorate and carve pineapples during festival celebrations. This practice still widely continues as the fruit is still seen my many people as a symbol of good luck, hospitality, and fertility. Pineapples are extremely popular.
According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service and Hawaii Field Office, Hawaii alone produced 212,000 tons of the fruit in the year 2005. 106,000 tons of that figure were sold fresh to consumer markets around the world. The remaining 106,000 tons were sold as processed pineapple, canned, etc.
Did you know that the 2 most recent yearly annual Hawaiian pineapple crops were each worth an estimated $80 million US dollars. Price per ton in 2005 was $600 for fresh pineapple, and $148 for process pineapple, mostly canned. As compared to other types of fruit, pineapples are relatively expensive.
Did you know that the total Hawaii acreage for pineapple crops in 2005 was approximately 14,000 acres. This overall figure is down from 2001, in which the total acreage was around 20,000 acres. As you can imagine, a decent portion of state of Hawaii is dedicated to pineapple production.
Pineapple is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals as we have mentioned earlier. It also contains no fat or saturated fat, cholesterol, or sodium. So eat up, and enjoy the antioxidant, cancer fighting, and anti inflammatory benefits of the fruit, to name just a few of them.
As of 2006 Ethiopia has recently started to make large scale plans for the cultivation and production of pineapple. Several Dutch investment companies have created factories there, and are in the process of proceeding to step up Africa's increasingly large pineapple production output.
There have been recent disputes between the US state of Hawaii and south east Asian pineapple producing countries, mostly with regard to access to mainland US consumer markets. Pineapple from Thailand, the Philippines, and others tend to be of lesser quality then Hawaiian pineapples.
