Pineapple Breeding: Fulfilling Expectations of the Global Supply Chain  

Y.K. Chana
Malaysian Agrifood Corporation Berhad (MAFC)
No. 3, Jalan Perindustrian Puchong
47160 Puchong, Selangor
Malaysia

Keywords: Ananas comosus, pineapple breeding, Malaysia, supply chain

Abstract
Pineapple breeding, as in breeding of many other fruit species, usually has
selection criteria based on conventional traits like high yield and fruit quality, at
least before the breeding programme begins. In modern day production from farm
to fork for the global markets, however, these selection criteria are largely
inadequate and should be expanded to cover the demands of an integrated system of
good agricultural practices. This makes breeding more complicated as the breeder
has to understand and address the demands at each segment of the total global
supply chain. At the beginning stage (upstream) of the supply chain, the production
of bona fide and disease-free planting materials are an important matter before
start-up of the pineapple farm. For the breeder, the cultivar selected should produce
at least one or two suckers for continuity in propagation. New cultivars should have
consistent and high early yield, stability in performance over environments and
seasons and pest and disease resistance that reduces the use of chemical pesticides.
The fruit must be symmetrical in configuration with a small crown for efficient
packing, have good ripening characteristics, extended shelf-life and the ability to
withstand specific sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements demanded by
some importing countries. At the downstream marketing end, the extended shelf-life
for a longer display window is important, as is the cosmetic appeal of the fruit on
display. Extended shelf-life with the ability to withstand transport by refrigerated
sea-reefers will score better in ‘Food Miles’ and ‘Carbon Footprints’ compared with
air-freighted produce. Finally, consumer demands for organoleptic traits like
freshness, flavour (balance of sugar and acid for e.g.), sweetness, texture and visual
traits like fruit cosmetics and colour have to be satisfied to ensure repeat purchases.
Convenience in serving such as the peeling-eye pineapples and mini-core cultivars
for fresh cut (minimally processed) pineapples to make consumption more
ubiquitous should also be addressed. Many global markets now demand food safety
and traceability through Good Agriculture Practices (e.g., Global GAP, Carrefour
Quality Line (CQL)) and cultivars should be adapted to such cultural methods (low
pesticide use, organically grown, etc.). Lately, consumers are starting to recognize
the role of tropical fruits as exotic functional foods with high vitamins, anti-oxidants
and other health attributes for wellness. Breeding therefore should address the
improvement of these nutritional contents as well.

INTRODUCTION
Pineapple breeding, as in breeding of many other fruit species, usually has
selection criteria based on conventional traits like high yield and fruit quality, at least at
the start of its breeding programme. These are basic requirements of a good cultivar and
once these are achieved, the breeding programme moves to another level of improvement
and the example of such step-wise improvement in papaya breeding was presented by
Chan (2007). In modern day production from ‘farm to fork’ for the global markets, it
involves a complicated chain of integrated segments. At various segments, the ownerships
and demands are often different from each other. Therefore, the basic selection criteria of
a
ykchan@mafc.com.my

Proc. 7th International Pineapple Symposium 109 

Eds.: H. Abdullah et al.
Acta Hort. 902, ISHS 2011
high yield and fruit quality are largely inadequate and should be expanded to cover the
demands of an integrated system of good agricultural practices. Therefore, the breeder has
to understand and address the demands at each segment of the integrated total global
supply chain.
The supply chain from ‘seed to fork’ (Fig. 1) covers the upstream (seed
production, crop production and harvest), midstream (value adding through grading,
processing and packaging, logistics in product delivery) and finally downstream
(branding, product differentiation, marketing and sales, consumer preferences and product
development).

UPSTREAM: WHAT GROWERS WANT

Planting Materials
Growers first want bona fide, disease-free planting material that is important for
start-up of the pineapple farm. For the breeder, the cultivar selected should produce at
least one or two suckers for continuity in propagation. ‘Maspine’ or ‘73-50’ for example
is disadvantaged because of their poor suckering habit as compared to ‘Josapine’. ‘Piping’
leaf margin that is completely smooth and characteristic of the Manzanah group of
pineapple is increasingly sought after because of better comfort in management of the
crop compared with the spiny (‘Queen’) or spiny-tipped (‘Smooth Cayenne’, ‘Josapine’)
leaf margins of many commercial cultivars today.

Early Bearing
New cultivars should have consistent and high, early yield so that growers may get
an early return to investment. In breeding for early fruiting, the phases of the crop cycle
should be looked at. There are (1) planting to ‘forcing’ (flowering hormone application),
(2) ‘forcing’ to appearance of ‘red-heart’ and (3) ‘red-heart’ to fruit harvest. Chan and
Lee (2000) reported that there was little variation in developmental time between
cultivars at phases (2) and (3). The prospects for early fruiting lie in the ability to reduce
phase (1) i.e., the growing period from planting to ‘forcing’, which varied between 180 to
365 days. Early fruiting progenies should, therefore, have the capacity to bear economic-
sized fruit on small plant mass, i.e., a very high fruit:plant mass ratio. The ratios reported
in their study ranged from 0.24 (‘Tailung’) to 0.83 (‘A04-16’). Thus, when ‘A04-16’ was
hormoned very early at 7 months, it could still bear economic-sized fruits of about 1.9 kg
on a small plant of 2.26 kg. Early bearing hybrids may be planted strictly on an annual
cycle. They may be forced as early as 6-7 months after planting and the fruits harvested
5 months later. Savings of 20-33% in management costs may be envisaged with such
early, ‘annual’ cultivars.

Stable Performance
Growers often use the consistency in performance of cultivars when planted over
varied environments or seasons as the gauge of stability in cultivars. This is quite
acceptable when there is no genotype × environment (GE) interaction. However, when
such interactions occur, i.e., when genotypes do not show the same relative performance
over different environments, the selection procedure may get quite complicated because
the performance of genotypes is less predictable and environment dependent. In this case,
the selection of cultivars will have to consider an additional criterion, i.e., the stability of
the genotype.
There are at least two interpretations of stability, the first being static stability in
which the cultivars show small GE interaction and exhibit minimal changes in
performance over varied environments. This is the least useful to plant breeders and
might not even be acceptable to growers as cultivars with static stability, though very
predictable, are also poor to average performers and generally do not respond to
favourable changes to the environment.

110
 The second type of stability is dynamic and cultivars here demonstrate a
concomitant rise in yield in response to a unit improvement in the environment. This is
most useful in breeding and the cultivars with dynamic stability will be readily acceptable
by progressive farmers who are prepared to invest in high inputs for growing.
Before the release of new cultivars, it is common for breeders to test the cultivars
over several locations, sometimes even over several seasons to determine the type of
stability of the new cultivars. This was illustrated by Chan (1997) who tested six
pineapple hybrids over three locations before release of the new commercial cultivar
‘Josapine’.
In the presence of GE interaction, stability is an important statistic, but more often
than not, high stability is antagonistic to yield performance. This means that cultivars with
more or less unchanging yields no matter where they are grown are invariably poor
yielders. There must then be a balance between selection of stability and yield. Chan and
Mak (1996) proposed several methods that may be useful for simultaneous selection of
stability and yield.

Pest and Disease Resistance

Pineapple growers would definitely prefer cultivars that are resistant to common
pests and diseases as the losses in productivity are minimized and costs are also reduced
due to the reduction in the use of chemicals. This is also the reason that Good Agricultural
Practices (GAP) recommend the growing of resistant cultivars.
There are a host of diseases on pineapple described by Rohrbach and Johnson
(2003) such as fruit collapse (Erwinia chrysanthemii), fruitlet core rot, leathery pocket,
inter-fruitlet corking (Penincillium funiculosum), black rot (Thielaviopsis), fusariosis
(Fusarium subglutinans f. sp. ananas) and pests such as nematode, mealy bug wilt and
physiological damage (internal browning or ‘black heart’ caused by chilling injury). For
all these pests and diseases, there are known resistant cultivars. For example, the leading
pineapple cultivar in Brazil is ‘Pѐrola’ and it is extremely susceptible to fusariosis. The
known resistant cultivars are ‘Primavera’ and ‘Perolera’ and in the screening of 211
genotypes from Embrapa pineapple germplasm, 47% of them were found to be resistant
(de Matos and Cabral, 2006). This indicates that resistance to fusariosis is of fairly
common occurrence among pineapple genotypes and that highly tolerant or resistant
‘Pѐrola’ hybrids may be developed using appropriate resistant parents.
Resistant and susceptible cultivars also exist for physiological disorders such as
internal browning or ‘black heart’ due to chilling injury. ‘MD-2’ and ‘Josapine’ are
known to be resistant while ‘Queen’ and ‘Smooth Cayenne’ are very susceptible (Chan et
al., 2003). Efforts to overcome ‘black heart’ disorder using genetic transformation that
inhibits the expression of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) gene have been reported by Graham
et al. (2000).

MIDSTREAM: WHAT FRUIT PACKERS WANT

Pineapple fruit are usually harvested after a specific period from flower induction
(ranging from 130-160 days, depending on cultivars, under Malaysian conditions).
Cultivars like ‘Gandul’ (‘Singapore Spanish’) are picked at ‘white-bract’ stage and
‘Moris’ (‘Queen’) at one-eye ripe. These fruit are largely green and unattractive but do
have a larger window for sale when picked at this early maturity index. Fruit packers
would like to have extended storage but the fruit must have an attractive coloured peel as
well. Current hybrids bred for the fresh market like ‘MD-2’ and ‘Josapine’ fit this
requirement. Fruits of these cultivars can usually be packed at quarter or even half colour
and look very attractive in the pack.
Fruit packers would also require fruits to have good, even configuration, square-
shouldered with a small crown for efficient packing (box load maximization). For export,
some countries have stringent sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) requirements. For
Malaysian pineapples going into Japan, methyl bromide (MB) fumigation is required to
disinfest mealy bugs and other insects. ‘Josapine’ fruit appears to be susceptible to MB

111
fumigation, the damage expressed as internal browning of peduncle and crown tissues
(Pauziah Muda, pers. commun.). Another example is papaya and thermal treatments are
required to disinfest the fruit fly eggs and larvae in the fruit before being permitted to
enter markets like China (hot water dip) and Japan and Australia (vapour heat). Breeding
therefore, should also consider tolerance of the new cultivars to such postharvest
disinfestation treatments.

DOWNSTREAM: WHAT MARKETERS WANT

Perhaps the factor of paramount importance to marketers is the consistency in
supply of good quality produce. It is frustrating for retail markets to put up promotions on
the produce and get it selling well one day only to find that the supply had dried up the
next day. Seasonal fruits therefore, are not really high on the promotion list for retailers.
Pineapple will have no such problems if the scheduling of planting is accurately done to
match the supply and demand forecast.
Reputable superstores and other retail markets have been pressing for food safety,
traceability, environment care and workers’ welfare through Good Agricultural Practices
of the farm (e.g., Global GAP, Carrefour Quality Line). Organically produced fruit is also
fast becoming a premium niche market. New cultivars that can be grown under low-input
regime with good tolerance to pests and diseases and require minimal pesticides will be
desirable.
New cultivars will have a distinct advantage in the retail market if they can be
‘product differentiated’ from others. Therefore uniqueness in display characteristics may
be exploited by marketers in branding, publicity and promotion. Visual attraction and
cosmetics are increasingly more important at display to woo the customers. For the
pineapple breeders, there is potential in selection of cultivars that have a coloured crown
(perhaps called ‘Red-Head’). The traditional thinking that all pineapples should be
square-shouldered (imposed mainly by canneries for maximizing recovery) ought to be
changed. Certainly round, globe-like pineapples (perhaps called ‘Jabulani’) would be
unique and eye-catching. Indeed these novel characteristics will provide the marketers a
story to tell and will certainly segregate and differentiate them from the others.
There is increasing pressure for markets to buy local and imported fruits come
under the criticisms of extravagant ‘Food Miles’ and ‘Carbon Footprints’ that contribute
to energy wastage and global warming. Extended storage life and the capability of the
fruit to travel in sea-reefers rather than air-freight would at least mitigate this issue in a
small measure.

DOWNSTREAM: WHAT CONSUMERS WANT

Finally, what consumers want will basically come down to quality and pricing.
The consumers’ demands on organoleptic traits like freshness, flavour (e.g., balance of
sugar and acid), sweetness, texture and visual traits like fruit cosmetics and colour have to
be satisfied to ensure repeat purchases. One of the biggest disadvantages in consuming
the pineapple is the inconvenience in handling the fruit - it needs to be peeled and cut into
pieces. There are handy portable pineapple peelers in the market, but it is still a chore to
serve the fruit. Convenience in serving such as the peeling-eye (‘Easy Peel’) pineapples
and mini-core cultivars (‘Pine Lolli’) for fresh cut (minimally processed) pineapples to
make consumption more ubiquitous should also be addressed. Lately, consumers are
starting to recognize the role of tropical fruits as exotic functional foods with high
vitamins, anti-oxidants and other health attributes for wellness. Breeding therefore should
address the improvement of these nutritional contents as well.

CONCLUSION
Addressing and trying to achieve the full requirements of the modern day global
supply chain is an arduous if not impossible task for the breeder. It is unrealistic to put up
all the criteria into a single breeding programme as the focus will be lost. Further, traits
are usually not readily heritable or are genetically linked (e.g., small fruit, high sugar

112
content) and these factors will slow down genetic advance. A better approach will be to
adopt a ‘step-wise’ improvement programme based on priorities. Most current pineapple
hybrids already have many desirable attributes mentioned in this paper. It is then up to the
breeder to pick the most suitable one as the base parent to add on more beneficial traits.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to record his gratitude to the Malaysian AgriFood
Corporation Berhad for permission to present this paper at the 7th International Pineapple
Symposium in Johor Baru, Malaysia.

Literature Cited
Chan, Y.K., Coppens d’Eeckenbrugge, G. and Sanewski, G.M. 2003. Breeding and
variety improvement. p.33-55. In: D.P. Bartholomew, R.E. Paull and K.G. Rohrbach
(eds.), The pineapple: Botany, production and uses. CAB International, UK.
Chau, N.M. 1998. Evaluation of fruit trees in the Mekong Delta: prospect in domestic and
export consumption. Workshop on commercialization of tropical fruit in South
Vietnam. Tien Giang, Vietnam, 12-13 June.
Chau, N.M. 2001. Fruit breeding and improvement at Southern Fruit Research Institute.
Papaya Network Technical Workshops and Coordination Meetings. My Tho and Ha
Noi, Vietnam, 22-26 October.
Diem, N.T.N. and Lieu, P.N. 2007. Selection of Queen promising clones in fields.
Research report, SOFRI. Agriculture Publishing House, Ho Chi Minh city. p.116-126.
Hang, N.T.N., Thuy, N.P. and Chau, N.M. 2006. Preliminary result study on the cause of
concentration of nitrate contain on Queen pineapple. Research report, SOFRI.
Agriculture Publishing House, Ho Chi Minh city. p.116-126.
Leal, F. and Coppens d’Eeckenbrugge, G. 1996. Pineapple. p.565-606. In: J. Janick and
L.N. Moore (eds.), Fruit breeding, Vol. I, Tree and tropical fruit. John Wiley & Sons,
New York.
Wortman, S. and Kerns, K.R. 1959. The plant breeding program 1957-1958. Research
report No.6. Pineapple Research Institute, Honolulu, Hawaii, 180p.

113
114
Figures

Fig. 1. The supply chain model: from ‘seed to fork’.

114