"We have increased production a lot, doubling it each year," said Ian Douglas from The Lime Caviar Company. "It is hard to say exactly what the volume for this season will be as it is still early, but we predict we will again double last year's total."
Ian and his wife Margie grow the finger limes in South East Queensland, a tropical region where the fruit is a native species.
"It has been very warm in the last few weeks, but it won't affect the finger limes as we are at altitude, but it may affect things down at the coast. We may get some rain in a few week's time but it wont do any harm, we just can't harvest in the rain and need wait a couple of days till it has all dried out before we pick again."
The exports are looking positive with a shipment just sent to Italy and another will be sent to Leon in France this this week.
The US, China and Japan have psytosanitary restrictions on the import of fresh finger limes from Australia, they believe that because it is a citrus it may be associated with the fruit fly. The Australian Government and the Queensland Government are about to conduct a study to prove that fruit fly is not an issue. Ian said this study is largely down to their lobbying.
"In the ten years we have been growing finger limes we have never seen a fruit fly, so we are pretty confident that the study will prove that it is not a problem. We will then be able to export fresh finger limes into Japan, the US and China and also to South Korea and Thailand," explains Ian. "Opening up these markets for fresh product would a huge step forward, the study will take around 12 months, then the Australian government will have to negotiate with foreign governments on the imports. So it will probably in the 2019 season before we can ship to these markets."
At the moment they send frozen finger limes to Japan, NZ and fresh into Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as Europe. The Australian market also has a good demand.
"We are already increasing our production as the world demand for finger limes is doubling each year. The finger lime takes 3-4 years to get a commercial crop, but there is also a waiting list of around 6 months from the nursery for new trees," said Ian.
"It is a big investment but we are sure of the market demand and I'm sure it will keep increasing for at least the next ten years. This is why there are people who are growing finger limes in Italy, Sicily, the US and Israel."
Once a product only used by chefs, the finger lime is now also used by consumers in Australia, this is also happening in France. Ian said that the latest shipment to France is going to up-market retailers.
"People are learning how to use them and top chefs have really taken to them. When René Redzepi had his pop-up restaurant in Sydney last year he said they were the best Australian product he had ever used and people around the world took notice of what he said."
For more information:
Ian Douglas
The Lime Caviar Company
Tel: +61 7 5544 1232 or +61 417373073
Email: info@limecaviar.net