There are only 5 major growers in Australia, mainly around the Byron Bay area. They are all having to let their fruit drop to the ground as their major buyer Tropico, hasn't bought from them this year.
If the consumers don't buy it off the supermarket shelf in juice etc they won't be buying it next year either. That means these growers will be closing down their orchards. Which will be a terrible shame.
700 tonnes of guava fruit is rotting on the ground at the moment. That is the whole of Australias guava crop.
Oh By the way I'm watching Landline at the moment.
it's not like people won't buy fresh guava but it has to be available before they can buy. It's a pity the growers didn't get together and organise to go direct to consumer or better still add value buy juicing them and selling the juice or turning it into jelly. Left over pulp can go to compost or pig food.
Totally agree antigoon, that was suggested to them on the program. One is selling it fresh, must be at a local market. They interviewed a lady who had ideas on how to make by products that would sell, eg a lovely gel block that would go with cheese and bikkies.. She was talkinng to them about branching out and maybe saving their business.
Don't forget to check for Fruit Fly strike Marj. They're very prone to it. Nothing worse than biting into one, and finding it's full of little wormy things.
Even as kids we knew to break the fruit open BEFORE the first bite! However, these days I keep my tree fruitfly free, and I pick up fallen fruit, so haven't seen a grub for a number of years now (fingers crossed).
Just luv dem feijoas!. In Auckland the councils plant them on the nature strips. As kids we would sit down at the tree and eat them, cant remember seeing any half grubs though. Ahhh well.
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Gerty I thought feijoas were totally different. I like guavas but not feijoas. We have cherry guavas and I could stand at the tree and eat stacks of them. By the way. My hubby says it doesn't matter about the grubs - they are full of guava anyway!!! Yuk.
Guavas and Feijoas are not the same fruit. Love Feijoas too. Back in the old days I used to do peoples tax returns. They would pay me with boxes of Feijoas from their gardens, In NZ.
Just Googled FEIJOAS. Yes, a member of the GUAVA family, known as Pineapple Guava, but IS NOT a Guava. The internal of the feijoas fruit is segmented, pale green/yellow to a pale purple. The Guava is not so distinctly segmented and is a rich red/ crimson color
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Take only your memories, leave only your footprints
I don't think I've ever tried either. Although I'm sure Mum had a Guava tree when I was a kid.
There's a Feijoa tree growing near my porch. (I rent my granny flat at the back of the main house.) I watch the birds eating the nectar from the flowers, then the fruit gets strewn around everywhere...don't know if it's possums or birds. My Kiwi friend says the tree needs some TLC.
-- Edited by Beth54 on Wednesday 18th of July 2012 09:28:57 PM
The possums love my guavas, and the fruit bats. I often find fruit on the ground with teeth marks in -like little kid teeth. Can't leave fruit on the ground as it attracks fruit fly. Every year or so I cut the tree back, and it comes back again better than ever. Haven't done it for a while I have been enjoying its shade.
A few years ago we had some asian refugees who settled up the street, and they asked if they could have some fruit. Nice people, and the kids would come in and climb all over the tree to collect fruit. Seems they used it in cooking, but becasue of the language problem we never swapped recipes.
If you have a glut of fruit, you could offer it for free.
