By Kuldeep Singh
Millions of tonnes of pineapple crowns, peels, and pulp rot annually across Assam, Tripura, and Meghalaya but a convergence of circular economy science, women-led enterprise, and urgent policy ambition may transform this loss into a $100 million opportunity.
Each pineapple plucked from the hills of Tripura and Meghalaya produces a residue of crown, a core, and a shower of peels and pulp that decay silently along roadsides or in pits on farms. But multiply that by millions of pineapples in the pineapple-growing regions of Northeast India, and the magnitude of the waste becomes apparent. However, there is an irony in the decay that is only now being recognized by scientists, business people, and politicians: the waste parts of the pineapple could be worth more than the fruit itself.Northeast India is one of the world’s most underappreciated pineapple producers. States like Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, and Manipur collectively grow the Kew variety across undulating terrain where few other cash crops thrive so reliably. Yet infrastructure gaps mean that nearly 60 percent of every harvested pineapple, by weight, never reaches a consumer. It becomes agricultural residue, a liability rather than an asset. Pineapple waste is extraordinarily rich in compounds with commercial value. Bromelain, a proteolytic enzyme extracted from pineapple stems, commands upwards of $200 per kilogram in global pharmaceutical and food-processing markets. Pineapple leaf fibre, already commercialised in the Philippines under the trademarked textile Pinatex, has drawn interest from luxury brands seeking leather alternatives. The pulp and peels yield pectin, organic acids, and biogas feedstock. The building blocks for a value chain exists, what remains is the architecture to connect them. The circularity argument is compelling on paper, but its power depends entirely on who controls the value chain. In Tripura and Meghalaya, pineapple farming is disproportionately a women’s domain. Any waste-valorisation initiative that bypasses these farmers in favour of urban processing firms will replicate the extractive pattern that has historically marginalised indigenous agricultural communities. Women’s self-help groups in Tripura’s Gomati district have already begun piloting pineapple vinegar production using simple fermentation techniques, a blueprint for inclusive circular economy design where the primary producer captures a share of the value-added margin. The policy agenda is equally clear. Pineapple waste must be designated a recognised circular economy feedstock under national and state agriculture acts, enabling formal credit access for collection enterprises. Farmer Producer Organisations with majority women membership should serve as anchor nodes in bromelain and fibre supply chains. Cold-chain micro-infrastructure at the village level is the single most critical bottleneck,enzyme activity in pineapple stems degrades rapidly without refrigeration. And Northeast India’s fibre exports need Environmental Product Declarations to compete credibly under the EU’s incoming eco-labelling regime. Ecologically speaking, the stakes are no less. Pineapple waste left uncollected undergoes anaerobic decomposition, releasing methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes 80 times more to global warming than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Processing this biomass for energy via biogas or biopolymer production produces tangible ecological benefits in addition to economic ones. In an area witnessing altered monsoon rainfall and flooding, agricultural waste management cannot be seen solely from an economic perspective but rather as part of climate adaptation measures. Time is running out. Vietnam and the Philippines have made substantial investments in pineapple processing and are making inroads into the international market. North-eastern India has the agricultural base, the biodiversity, and a new generation of farmers looking to earn steady incomes. What it lacks is commitment.
(The author is a researcher in agricultural studies at CPGS AS CAU-I Umiam, Meghalaya. Views expressed are his own)
