The $396 pineapple unfolds like an origami and comes in a gorgeous red box with holes for breathing. The $156 melon, wrapped in bubble netting, grows alone on a vine from which all other fruits have been pruned, the purpose being to make it sweeter.
The gourmet fruit, which has a long history in parts of Asia, is gaining popularity in the United States as new varieties are grown and imported, including those developed over the years by companies seeking to market produce with unique shapes and flavors. An extremely limited edition of the $396 pineapple, branded Rubyglow for its red skin, recently sold out in the U.S. within weeks.
Some fruits have long been given as gifts, especially in Japan and Korea. The trend is gaining traction in the U.S., too, as are the perfect berries and melons that travelers have tasted abroad, produce experts said. And as the luxury industry has grown, so has interest in luxury fruits, said Soyeon Shim, a consumer and financial behaviorist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The market has become much more global,” she said. “You can buy whatever you want,” Ms. Shim added.
Eve Turow-Paul, author and expert on global food trends, described gourmet fruit as one of those “couture food experiences” where people try to make a statement of value. “The world’s food cultures have become homogenized, especially in the last 10 years,” she said. “How do you continue to outdo others in this food environment?”
Recent decades have produced unique produce, including a $156 melon known as the Crown Melon. A specialty grape from Korea known for its large size and crunchy texture; Japanese white strawberries; And mangosteen, a tropical fruit with soft white flesh, has been imported into the U.S., said Robert Schueller, a spokesman for Melissa’s Produce. Melissa’s Produce describes itself as the nation’s largest specialty fruit and vegetable distributor.
But the company’s attempts to introduce fruits unfamiliar to American palates haven’t always been successful, he added: star apples, a deep purple fruit native to the Caribbean and Central America; oca, a popular yam in New Zealand; and square watermelons, which, Schueller said, “were all flops, even though they were cut like toast and didn’t taste great.” (Melissa’s is currently working with a grower in Costa Rica to develop a box-shaped, sweet watermelon.)
But for most Americans, premium fruit remains out of reach. The average household spends about $1,080 a month on groceries, according to a recent analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And even for those who can afford it, can a pineapple be worth the price of a dishwasher?
“There’s no reason to spend $400 on a piece of fruit,” said David Karp, a fruit researcher at the University of California, Riverside.
Karp, who is known for his prowess in finding rare produce, said he has not yet sampled Rubyglow, but there is nothing in the pineapple’s patents to suggest it is superior to common varieties. But in some cases, he added, it may be worth paying a more modest premium for the tastiest seasonal produce. “You can get some really great fruit for $10 to $20 a pound,” Karp said.
Here are some of the coolest fruits available in the United States.
designer pineapple
Pineapple, a tropical fruit native to South America, has historically been a luxury item in the United States and Europe, symbolizing imperialism, power, and luxury. In the early 20th century, the fruit began to become more widely distributed throughout North America with the establishment of plantations in Hawaii.
In recent years, several unique and expensive pineapples have been introduced to the United States, including the Elefante Green Gold pineapple, which is native to Ghana. This pineapple has white flesh, an edible core, low acidity, and is shipped in boxes because it tends to fall over. It costs about $26. The Pinkglow pineapple, grown in Costa Rica, is genetically engineered by Fresh Del Monte for candy-pink flesh and low acidity. It was introduced in 2019 for about $50 and now costs up to $29, depending on size.
After 16 years of development, Del Monte, which distributes produce worldwide, has introduced the Rubyglow pineapple, which has a red skin and sweet yellow flesh, to China and the United States. The high price is partly due to the fact that only a few thousand pineapples were grown this year, but the company said prices will likely fall as production increases. Neither the Pinkglow nor the Rubyglow, sold by Melissa’s Produce, come with crowns that can be used to grow more pineapples.
A peculiar melon
The fragrant and sweet crown melon is a muskmelon from Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture, a region with a warm, sunny climate. Each vine is pruned to produce only one fruit, concentrating the flavor of the melon.
In Japan, melons, which have net-shaped skin and lime-colored flesh and are analyzed for sugar content before sale, are traditionally given as gifts. Each melon is presented in a box with a T-shaped stem as a reminder of the growing process. Melons have only recently been approved for import into the United States and can cost up to $156 per fruit.
Many American shoppers are already familiar with melons, but they are gaining wider popularity, said Ayako Yuki, a spokeswoman for Ikigai Fruits, which imports the fruit and other high-end Japanese produce to the U.S. She added that social media influencers have also helped introduce high-end produce to global markets. “They want to get that first bite,” Yuki said.
Coagulated Strawberries
A pound of non-organic strawberries usually costs just a few dollars. A single premium berry can cost that much more, up to $29 apiece.
Ikigai, a high-end fruit importer, sells a variety of red, pink and white strawberries imported from Japan in boxes ranging from $89 to $780. A typical package costs about $128 and contains 30 large strawberries, the company said. Grown in greenhouses and picked when perfectly ripe and sweet, the berries are sometimes individually wrapped to protect them from bumps and bruises.
In 2018, the U.S. company Oishii began selling Japanese strawberries grown in an indoor vertical farm in New Jersey. The berries, made famous by TikTok, initially sold for about $100 a pound (about $5 a strawberry), but now sell for about a fifth of that price, says Hiroki Koga, Oishii’s CEO. “Our mission is not to sell fancy fruit,” he says, adding that the berries are merely a proof of concept that vertical farms can produce the most delicious produce.
Other American strawberries are still at a premium, but their prices may be less shocking than imported ones. Harry’s Berries, organic strawberries grown in Oxnard, California, currently cost about $15 to $20 a pound and are very sweet even at the best of times, produce experts said.
More types of mangoes
Mangoes, a tropical fruit native to Asia, were introduced to Florida in the 1800s. But growing, harvesting, and importing practices to this day mean that the mangoes most common in the United States can often be too hard, stringy, and sour.
But in recent decades, the USDA has approved imports from other countries, including India and Colombia. Some premium mangoes are also grown in Florida and California, but they are not always available in other states. “Some people think a mango is just a mango,” said Schueller of Melissa’s Produce. “They don’t all taste the same.”
The Pink Elephant mango from Vietnam is one of the newest imported varieties sold at Melissa’s, Schueller said. A single fruit weighing up to 2 pounds can fetch up to $25. Another variety, the Miyazaki mango, also known as the “Egg of the Sun,” is imported from Japan by another retailer and sells for $95 a piece.
“On the surface, this seems really unsustainable,” Turow-Paul, the food trends expert, said of importing luxury fruit into the U.S., noting that distance is part of what makes some fruits so expensive. I used to travel.
But she said she hopes American fruit can spark the same excitement. “There are all kinds of strange things. delicious; It’s the beautiful things that grow that we don’t celebrate,” Ms. Turow-Paul said.
“People are open to trying new and unique foods,” she added.
