A journey to the land of the pineapple | France 2 | Envoyé Spécial

The pineapple is a “success story” without equal: over the last ten years no fruit has enjoyed comparable success. You can now find them all year round and at a price that defies any competition?around €1.50?much less than a kilo of strawberries or apricots. How does one explain this success? Laurent Kouchner and Manolo d’Arthuis followed this fruit?no longer really exotic?from the plantations of Costa Rica to our plates. What triggered it all was the introduction some 13 years ago of a new variety: “the extra-sweet”. This is a hybrid pineapple obtained through much crossing in the laboratories of the American fruit multinational Del Monte. This pineapple is less acid, it travels better by boat and it always has the same taste. It can be sold all year round; it’s the ideal pineapple for the mass market. A gamble that paid off for Del Monte: it is now the best selling variety in the world. The extra sweet is grown essentially in Costa Rica. There, the pineapple is an industry all by itself: 45,000 hectares are devoted to its cultivation. In ten years this tiny Central American country has become the number one pineapple producer in the world. 3 out of every 4 pineapples eaten in Europe come from this tropical land. The “Envoyé spécial” team carried out an investigation in the north of Costa Rica, at the heart of the plantations. The reporters discovered there was major use of pesticides, with all its repercussions on the environment and the people. When these pineapples arrive on French soil can traces of these pesticides still be detected?