Finally, We Get Some Respect!
by Peter Ray
Have you noticed how agonizingly slow is the process of getting the rare fruits we love into the grocery store? Many fruits that don’t even fairly qualify as “rare” are rare (and expensive and of poor quality) at the supermarket. Most of us would not buy a persimmon or a papaya at the store because they are ridiculously priced, picked too green, and carelessly handled in transit and storage. We watch our own delicious fruits rot on the ground when we get such a glut that they can’t be given away. When you find the same fruit at the store, it is an inferior variety, picked too soon, and priced out of sight.
Well, maybe change is on the way. A recent Wall Street Journal article (“The Search for the Next Kiwi,” May 27, 2004) tells of efforts by growers and marketers to bring some of our favor Have you noticed how agonizingly slow is the process of getting the rare fruits we love into the grocery store? Many fruits that don’t even fairly qualify as “rare” are rare (and expensive and of poor quality) at the supermarket. Most of us would not buy a persimmon or a papaya at the store because they are ridiculously priced, picked too green, and carelessly handled in transit and storage. We watch our own delicious fruits rot on the ground when we get such a glut that they can’t be given away. When you find the same fruit at the store, it is an inferior variety, picked too soon, and priced out of sight.
Well, maybe change is on the way. A recent Wall Street Journal article (“The Search for the Next Kiwi,” May 27, 2004) tells of efforts by growers and marketers to bring some of our favorites to market. Kiwi is one of a very few success stories about making an exotic fruit a household word. Formerly known as Chinese Gooseberry (though it’s from New Zealand), consumption rose from nil in the 1960’s to half a pound per person, competing with cherries, in 1997. Consumption has been flat since then. The driving force behind the rise of kiwis has been Karen Caplan of Frieda’s, who is leading the way to make consumers aware of other exotic fruits. The difficulties in doing this are formidable. Many of our favorites are not grown in sufficient quantity to go commercial, and a major reason for this is…lack of a market. Many are perishable or difficult to handle and store, but are they really more perishable than fresh fish ,or more difficult to handle than fresh flowers?
The WSJ article mentions cherimoya, passion fruit, starfruit and lychees as candidates for successful commercialization. Of course, we know that one problem with lychees is the short season. They have long been available canned at oriental groceries, but the fresh fruit, when available, is usually quite expensive. The Journal quotes one lychee grower as saying that when peeled, they “look like an eyeball.” With marketing plugs like that, it seems unlikely that the stores will be flooded with fresh lychees anytime soon.
In our group, we know that with most tropical fruits, the difference between the best and worst varieties can be the difference between really bad and dazzlingly good. Typically, when star fruits appear in the supermarket, it will be a variety much inferior to fwang tung or sri kembangem. Once a consumer has his first taste of an inferior variety, picked too green and held too long, he will think he never wants to taste another one.
At least we are beginning to see some of our favorite fruits in the news, if not in the store. Let’s hope that a few entrepreneurial growers and marketers can overcome the obstacles to making them available fresh, processed, or even as juice in the supermarkets. Our contribution might be to place some of our good fruits in the local upscale markets such as Morton’s.
