One of the things to do in Pontian or Pekan Nanas of Johor will be to visit some farms or plantations that are opened to public and to buy some farm products to bring home. When in Pekan Nanas, also known as the “Pineapple Town”, it will be nice to visit a pineapple farm and Nictar Pineapple Park is the place to go.
Park Entrance / Retail Section
Nictar Pineapple Park is located at the edge of Pekan Nanas and right beside the Skudai-Pontian Highway, so it is not difficult to find (see map below). A road sign with the word “Nictar” points to the pineapple “park” — Nictar’s real farm is at another site, this small park is a pineapple-centric premise for producing and selling pineapple products.
A short trail leads to a wooden house and there are signs to direct visitors to the main entrance, which is also the retail section of the park. In the retail section, whole ripe pineapples for sales are laid out on a long table under a signboard that says “旺梨屋”, meaning “Pineapple House”. Information on various types of pineapple are displayed on one wall.
Products made from or with pineapples are available for sales over the counter. There are pineapple juice, jam, tarts, dried pineapple, chilli sauce with pineapple, and spicy and sour-sweet pineapple sauces for cooking. No artificial flavourings and colourings nor preservatives are used. Purchasing of any products can be done here without going into the park — the farm lands.
Good News! Nictar has setup a kiosk in the new Carton King Street Mall (纸箱王商业街) in Space Residency, in Taman Century of Johor Bahru. It is now easier and convenient to get Nictar’s product from the new kiosk.
Into the Pineapple Park
To enter the park, an admission fee of RM10 per person is required, which includes a bottle of chilled pineapple juice and a plate of cut pineapple sampler (served after the visit). The pineapple juice, made using naturally sweet pineapples, has very rich pineapple taste. The cut pineapples with less-fibre white flesh are of AC6 specie and the yellow flesh with more fibre are of AC9 specie — the species served may vary depending on the harvest seasons of the pineapples. Both are sweet and with slight differences in taste and texture.
Right beside the retail section is the cafe. There are Vietnamese-style coffee using Liberica beans, affogato dessert, croissant with pineapple jam, fresh cut pineapples and mineral water on the menu.
Nictar does not cultivate just one species of pineapple, but around 10 to 12 species of them. Each specie may have different harvest season, so it may not be possible to see full-grown pineapples of all species in the park at the same time.
All the different species of pineapple are showcased near the Pineapple House. Full-grown pineapples of different species will have different appearance and colours. The owner will do a brief introduction to the pineapples before letting visitors explore the park freely.
To ensure there are pineapples for viewing all year round, small plots of land will be cultivated at different time. There will be barren plots (for resting), plots with new offsprings, plots with few-month-old plants with no fruits and, of course, some with flowers or full-grown fruits.
Other than pineapples, Nictar also planted some banana trees, coconut trees, yam plants, sugarcane, dragonfruit plants, peanut plants, etc, for kids to learn more about them.
The rewards of visiting the pineapple park is to return home with some pineapple products straight from the farm. There are two flavours of pineapple juice, one with pineapple peels and the other without. The pineapple chilli sauce has both spicy and mild-spicy versions. Similarly, pineapple sauce has spicy and sour-sweet versions.
I bought a box of pineapple tarts with 10 individual packs containing 3 tarts each, a bottled pineapple juice, a mild-spicy pineapple chilli sauce and a jar of pineapple jam.
Nictar Pineapple Park is a nice place to visit when you are in Pontian. First visit may include a farm visit if you have never been into a pineapple farm. Subsequent visits may be there just to buy their pineapple products or bringing kids for more nature education.
How to Get There
Using public bus service, BAS.MY J50 is the only bus service that passes by Nictar Pineapple Park in Pekan Nanas along its route between Larkin Sentral and Pontian Kechil Bus Terminal.
Read: Johor Bahru Bus: To Pontian / Pekan Nanas in Johor (柔佛.笨珍.北干那那)
Going from Pontian Kechil / Pekan Nanas, take BAS.MY J50 and alight at the road junction near Nictar Pineapple Park (see map below).
How about going from Johor Bahru? Unfortunately, there is no bus-stop on the other side of the highway, which has road barriers and no vehicles can stop there. If you can communicate well with the bus driver of BAS.MY J50, ask to be dropped somewhere safe and convenient to cross the highway. One suggestion will be to go to Pekan Nanas for brunch / lunch and then take a bus, or e-hail a Grab car, in the opposite direction back to Nictar Pineapple Park.
Using Grab app, “Nictar Pineapple Park” may not appear as an option when typed — the park will not appear on GrabMap even after submitting requests to add it by the park management. Use the map to manually specify a point between “SK Batu 24” and the intersection with Skudai-Pontian Highway. Do inform the Grab driver to go to Nictar Pineapple Park.
Social Media:
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Address:
PTD 10822, Batu 24, 81500 Pekan Nanas, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
9am to 5pm | Daily
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