✻Forecast FarmClimate · Cultivation · Consequence
Tropical crop · Multiple fruit

Pineapple

Ananas comosus · Bromeliaceae

Pineapple is a tropical herbaceous crop that grows best in the 21–30°C range with 800–2500 mm of rain, cropping over a 330–365-day season. Today it is grown mostly in Costa Rica, Philippines and Indonesia.

Optimal temp
21–30 °C
Annual rain
800–2500 mm
Max altitude
1,800 m
Cold limit
10°C
Growing cycle
330–365 d
Climate-fit land
29 % world

How it grows

Pineapple
Photo: Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 3.0
Pineapple
Photo: Supportstorm · CC0
🌵 A spiky rosette

Pineapple grows as a spiny rosette at ground level.

What it’s worth to grow

$0.62 / kg at the farm gate
$$$$$
Mid-value
pricier than 38% of all crops · #8 of 15 tropical fruit
Ranked against similar crops — Tropical fruit
Avocado$1.44/kg
Date$1.20/kg
Lemon$0.87/kg
Lime$0.87/kg
Mango$0.70/kg
Guava$0.70/kg
Mangosteen$0.70/kg
Pineapple ◀$0.62/kg
Orange$0.61/kg
Mandarin$0.60/kg

Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 248 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.

Where Earth's climate suits pineapple

Global climatic suitability map for Pineapple
marginal suitable good excellent unsuitable land
29% of world land

Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).

Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it

Actual production · FAOSTAT 2024
World harvest 31.8M t/yr
Costa Rica3.12M t
Philippines2.92M t
Indonesia2.74M t
Brazil2.22M t
China2.15M t
India1.73M t
Nigeria1.61M t
Mexico1.29M t
Latest reported year. Source: FAO FAOSTAT.
Climatic fit · computed
Where the climate suits it best
Brazil
India
Dem. Rep. Congo
Indonesia
Australia
China
Argentina
United States of America
Ranked by suitable land area (EcoCrop×AgroClim). Climate permits far more than is farmed — economics and history decide the rest.

The climate where it grows

Costa Rica🌧 111% rain · near normal
23°C · 3062 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
Philippines🌧 138% rain · wet
25°C · 2695 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
Indonesia
25°C · 2880 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
Brazil🌧 99% rain · near normal
25°C · 1887 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND

— mean monthly temperature   ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.

Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop

Temperatureoptimum 21–30°C · tolerates 10–36°C
-5°C45°C
Annual rainfalloptimum 800–2500 mm · tolerates 550–3500 mm
0 mm4500 mm
Soil pHoptimum 3.5–9.0 · tolerates 3.5–9.0
3.09.0

Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±33° · soil pH 3.5–9.

Growing calendar & hazards

Season

An annual cycle of roughly 330–365 days from sowing to harvest, so it is timed to fall within the frost-free, adequately-wet part of the year for the location.

What threatens the crop
  • Cold & frost. A frost-sensitive crop: temperatures near or below freezing damage or kill it, so it is confined to frost-free seasons and warm climates.
  • Wet & disease. A thirsty crop that needs abundant rain; in the wettest climates, humidity brings fungal disease pressure.

Related crops

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