Tamarillo market grows

Press, 15 July 1987, Page 36

Tamarillo market grows

By

SUZANNE KEEN

Tamarillos, once grown in many New Zealand home gardens as the humble "tree tomato,” are now established as one of the nation’s most soughtafter exotic fruits, according to Turners and Growers Exports, Ltd, of Auckland.

The company recently negotiated the first sale of the fruit to Taiwan. Two hundred trays of tamarillos left Auckland this week by air. Last year 56,000 trays were exported, North America and Australia taking 90 per cent of the crop. Turners and Growers’ exports spokesman, Mr David Laery, said that Eastern markets for tamarillos had been very small in the past, so the interest from Taiwan broadened the spread of the fruit.

Tamarillos are grown in many New Zealand regions, from Motueka north.

Mr Stanley Rea, of Golden Bay, Nelson, began growing the fruit 4y 2

years ago and now has the largest orchard in the South Island. Mr Rea has 12 acres of land planted with about 10,000 trees. He expects to yield nearly 40 tonnes of produce this year.

He said that tamarillos required frost-free ground. There were not many areas in the South Island where they could be grown.

There would not be more than six growers in the South Island and about three of these were in Golden Bay.

Mr Rea said that the tamarillo tree was shal-low-rooted and brittle, with branches that broke very easily. For this reason it must be grown in sheltered areas.

The Rea family exports some of its produce, but it sees the export market as very volatile. Most of its crop is sold in the NelsonMarlborough area.

“I think the tamarillo industry has a great future, but a dismal present,” said Mr Rea. "It takes a long time to start a market and it is

more difficult to develop a clientele who are crazy about them. People have

got to learn to like them.” Mr Rea said that tamarillos had a good taste when added to other fruits, such as in an apple pie or in a jam. Last year he made a tamarillo fruit juice, but it did not prove very popular. Mr Rea sent a sample to the Minister of Overseas Trade, Mr Moore, who said that he particularly liked the taste.

“But, people see it sitting on the shelf, and they don’t know what it is. In my experience there are plenty of people in the South Island who have never tasted it and some do not even know what the tamarillo is,” said Mr Rea.

Tamarillo plants are raised from seeds in pots. They are planted out in August and the six-month picking season begins about May. Mr Rea said it usually took about two years to produce fruit from a seed.