"We planted the first seeds twelve years ago, and followed up with two more plantings in following years. The first commercial crop was harvested after seven years," explains Bruce.
16,000+ achacha trees are grown on 120 ha, together with about 60 mango trees and a few other tropical species. "We are surrounded by wetlands and cattle farms, backed by a spectacular mountain range. It’s a beautiful location with lots of flora and fauna," said Bruce.
The fruit is also grown in many small orchards of 100-200 trees in Bolivia where it is a native species, known as the achachairú, but it is difficult to gather statistics from other countries as the achacha is only now becoming well known due to the Australian group’s marketing efforts.
"We were the first and remain the only plantation of a significant scale, to our knowledge. We have great potential as an established unique supplier but do not have the resources to exploit the market opportunities which are available," he explains.
The Australian domestic market for achacha is growing and is currently at a couple of hundred tonnes, but it depends on what is happening with other fruits such as cherries, lychees and longans which in some way are competing for consumers’ funds.
The achacha is exported to the UK, the Netherlands, France, Middle East and increasingly Asia. "We have a locally based agent who has a longstanding network of wholesale clients for tropical fruits in Europe and we have several dedicated distributors: Bud Holland, AMS at Rungis, and recently Univeg has placed the fruit on M&S’s shelves."
Several coloured double sided flyers with point of sale information are included in each (5kg) box of fruit, aimed at showing consumers how to open the fruit, and giving ideas on how to use it - such as a recipe for making a drink from the skins. The website has a lot of interesting information, including several videos and a fun short one called “The Chase”.
For more information:
Bruce HillAchacha
Tel: +61 419 400 407
Email: bhill@achacha.com.au
www.achacha.com.au