DESPITE a clamour for them across eastern Australia and in New Zealand, feijoas are an unfamiliar fruit not often seen in SA – and only one Riverland family can claim to have cracked into the market.
Waikerie grower Shaun Arnold (pictured), of GM Arnold & Son, said the family are the only feijoa growers in the Riverland.
“It’s a very niche market to fill, but the demand for feijoas has grown a lot over the years,” he said.
“We’ve been very lucky that the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t hurt our sales; in fact, this has probably been our most productive year since we planted the trees around 10 years ago.”
Similar to kiwi fruit, feijoas have a sweet flavour like a guava, and are eaten in the same way as kiwis – cut them in half and scoop out the flesh with a spoon.
Mr Arnold said the demand for feijoas is huge in New Zealand, and has grown slowly across Australia, becoming popular in Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne markets.
“We’re nearly at the end of our feijoa harvest, and we’ve had a very good year,” he said.
“Last year, we picked and sold about seven tonnes. This year, I roughly estimate we’re up to 12 tonnes – and one 150g fruit will go for about $1.50 at a fruit and vegetable market.
“There’s a real clamour for them in the eastern states, and at the time of planting, we were just looking to diversify our stock.”
While the Arnolds are currently the only Riverland feijoa producers, Mr Arnold said it would be difficult for other SA growers to crack into the market, as the trees are currently banned from being brought into the state.
“Myrtle rust is a fungal disease that harms feijoa, guava and other similar trees,” he said.
“It was found around 2010 in Queensland and New South Wales orchards, and since then, these sorts of fruit trees have been banned from being moved into South Australia.
“We were lucky to get these before the ban came into place, and luckier to have avoided the disease.”
Myrtle rust attacks trees in the myrtacae family, which in Australia, includes over 2000 species.
The disease has reduced wild Australian native guava to an almost-extinct status.
Despite the demand for feijoas, Mr Arnold said the family is not looking into expanding their feijoa orchard.
“For one thing, we can’t get them into the state, so we’d have to propagate them ourselves, and that would be a lot of time and effort,” he said.
“The second thing is we have to pack the feijoas ourselves – it’s a very labour intensive fruit to grow and sell, despite being easy enough to manage.
“Most growers want the ease of just growing and picking their fruits; packing and marketing is a lot of work, and sometimes the money isn’t worth the trouble.
“If any growers want to try to crack into the feijoa market, they need to be prepared for a lot of extra work.”