Thu, Jun 08, 2017 page4

• FEATURE: Atemoya growers look to exports

  • By Jonathan Chin / Staff writer, with CNA
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  Taiwanese atemoya growers are ready to have a second crack at the international market with an integrated national branding and production strategy inspired by New Zealand’s success with its Zespri-brand kiwifruit, farmers said.

  Meinong Village (美農) in Taitung County’s Beinan Township (卑南) is the nation’s largest producer of the atemoya, a hybrid of two fruits: sugar apple and cherimoya.

  Government statistics showed that since 2008, atemoyas have overtaken pineapples and mangoes as the nation’s leading fruit export, with shipments in 2014 reaching NT$580 million (US$19.3 million at the current exchange rate), said Lu Po-sung (盧柏松), an atemoya expert at the Council of Agriculture.

  

  Taitung County farmers clean atemoyas headed for export on May 18.

  Photo: Chang Tsun-wei, Taipei Times

  The atemoya was introduced to Taiwan from Israel in 1968 at a time when patent rights to fruit breeds were not well developed, and the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction teams routinely bought fruits from abroad for local growers, said Lu, who hails from Meinong.

  Taiwanese farmers initially planted atemoyas between July and August as they did native sugar apples, which resulted in fruit that were prone to cracking and the breed was nearly shelved, Lu said.

  Acclimatization issues also made for poor initial harvests, but this changed when the planting season was moved to December, leading to successful harvests from January to March and rapid growth in atemoya cultivation throughout the 1980s, Lu said.

  By the 1990s, atemoya cultivation had exceeded 1,000 hectares nationwide and the fruit sold for more than NT$200 per jin (600g) between 1996 and 1997.

  However, overproduction caused prices to plunge to just NT$20 per jin from 2001 to 2003, prompting farmers to explore overseas markets, starting with Singapore.

  Although 2.8 tonnes of the fruit were exported to the city-state, the margins were deemed too narrow to justify the air freight cost, Lu said.

  During the administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), atemoya became a tariff-free export product to China, Lu said.

  The fruit gained ground in the Chinese market, especially in the northeastern regions, with 5,000 tonnes shipped in 2011 and 10,000 tonnes in 2015, he said.

  Atemoya cultivation has since dropped to 2,000 hectares, while the quality of the hybrid was improved by the addition of another fruit species.

  With an eye to expanding its export market, the former global marketing head of New Zealand’s Zespri kiwifruit, Chen Yu-jan (陳郁然), is overseeing a venture to develop a 200-hectare experimental farm in Taitung with Taiwan Sugar Corp, Lu said.

  In five years, the farm could begin large-scale production for export, Lu said.

  The county’s Agricultural Research and Extension Station is also working on developing a breed that can be harvested in summer, as well as frozen atemoya products, he added.

  All of the nation’s 2,000 hectares of atemoya farmland is to be incorporated in the global branding strategy, with a focus on the northeast Asian markets, Lu said.

  Chen said atemoyas are distinctive and have a good chance of becoming Taiwan’s signature fruit like New Zealand’s kiwifruit, he said.

  “The important thing is to modernize and standardize the production and sales system,” Chen said.

  An integrated national marketing system would prevent cutthroat competition and coordinate production and marketing, creating sustainable profits, he said.
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