Competitiveness of Pineapple: Focus on The Southeast Asian Region

Abstract

Pineapple, scientifically known as Ananas comosus var. MD2, is a tropical fruit that is low in saturated fats and cholesterol, and is widely sought after in the international market due to its nutritional value. Recently, there has been concern over a downward trend in the output of Malaysian pineapples, as documented in Fruit Crops Statistic 2019. Due to the reduction in pineapple production area from 14,700.00 hectarage to 12,898.44 hectarage, this was considered to be statistically significant because the pineapple production comparison had a rapid declining tendency. Thus, this making the study significant to clarify Malaysian competitive on exporting pineapple in global market. The purpose of this study is to examine pineapple export competitiveness in Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam) from 2010 to 2020 by comparing Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) and Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) over a five-year period (RSCA). According to the findings, Malaysia does not have a competitive advantage in terms of pineapple exports to the rest of the globe in either the RCA or RSCA indices when compared to Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.