Thai name : Sapparot
Season : April to June and December to January
The pineapple is native of Central America (Christopher Colombus discovered it along with the West Indies) and it has been grown in Thailand for several centuries, especially in the sandy soil along the sea coasts. Indeed, so widespread has cultivation been in recent years that today the kingdom ranks as the world's leading exporter of canned pineapple. Besides being eaten fresh or drunk as juice, the chopped fruit is often an ingredient of cooked dishes such as a spicy soup called kaeng khua sapparot and phat sapparot, which is fried pineapple with prawns, chillies, and onions. The main fruiting seasons for Thailand are April to June and December to January but some varieties are on the market year-round.