Passion fruit is having a moment in the UK. Already popular in cocktails and flavoured drinks, as well as increasingly common on the exotic fruit aisle, British consumers are falling in love with it. Ocati, Colombia’s leading purple passion fruit grower and exporter, is taking this opportunity to promote consumption by implementing a campaign with influencers across the UK.
“This season’s harvest has given us more fruit than we typically see. Rather than treat that as a challenge, we saw an opportunity to put purple passion fruit in front of a UK audience that is only just discovering it,” says Daniela Manjarres, Sales, Logistics and Marketing Manager at Ocati. “Passion fruit is already familiar here, but the purple one specifically, with its distinct sweetness and nutritional profile, incredibly high in fibre, has plenty of room to grow.”
The campaign combines product sampling, partnerships with health-focused food content creators, and a competition offering the winning creator a trip to Colombia to see the fruit’s origins firsthand. “We are very excited about this campaign and hope to replicate it soon in other European markets. Europeans are becoming more concerned about their health and choose foods based on their properties. In this context, purple passion fruit has lots of potential,” explains Manjarres.
High in fibre, naturally sweet and very versatile
Part of the campaign’s pitch rests on nutrition. Purple passion fruit is among the highest-fibre fruits available, containing around 12.8g of fibre per 100g — more than raspberries, blackberries or most other fresh fruit. That matters in the UK specifically: according to a January 2026 report commissioned by Marks & Spencer with the British Nutrition Foundation, 96% of UK adults fail to meet the NHS-recommended 30g of fibre a day, with average intake sitting at around 16g. Ocati is positioning purple passion fruit as a simple, tasty way to help close that gap.
The fruit’s sweetness and versatility help, too. Purple passion fruit works as easily spooned over a breakfast yoghurt bowl as it does shake into a Porn Star Martini or a sparkling mocktail. That range of use is central to helping consumers incorporate purple passion fruit into their daily diet.
A growing network behind the fruit
Ocati’s passion fruit business has grown steadily year after year, built on an expanding network of more than 600 growers across Colombia’s key producing regions. The company supports them with a dedicated team of agronomists who provide training, technical assistance and, in some cases, financial support for new growing projects. Caring about the growers, their communities and nature is at the heart of Ocati’s project, which is built on sustainability at every stage, from the orchard to the shelf.
Europe is Ocati’s largest export market for purple passion fruit. The company supplies some of the region’s most demanding retailers year-round, offering availability across all 52 weeks thanks to its certifications and traceability systems. Ocati has also developed its own passion fruit varieties, tailored to the preferences of different European markets, along with customised packaging formats.
“We want to keep consolidating our position as an international reference for passion fruit,” Manjarres adds. “In the UK and across Europe, there is still a lot of work to do to help consumers understand how versatile purple passion fruit is and what it offers nutritionally — particularly around fibre, which we believe is one of its strongest, most under-communicated attributes. Our goal isn’t only to grow sales, but to grow the category itself, and to build a higher frequency of consumption over time.”
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