The winter passion fruit season is underway out of Florida and there’s pressure on demand.
“We’ve been selling more and more Florida-grown passion fruit. In the last three to four weeks, we’ve been getting more calls from outside companies trying to source it. There’s not enough to go around right now,” says Dennis Sever of Exotic Growers.
Recent chillier temperatures in the region have forced some fruit to drop so supplies will come back on in 10 days when the fruit is mature and ready to be picked. “Then in less than three weeks, we should be back in volume again,” says Sever. The winter crop of passion fruit out of Florida runs until early February and then the summer crop starts back up at the end of April and goes until August. The Florida fruit is also slightly different than a typical passion fruit. “We have a specialty variety that’s a cross between a granadilla and a passion fruit,” he says. “Passion fruit is normally sour to tart and these are pretty sweet. They’re also normally round like a golf ball but these are egg-shaped and if we let them grow, they can get to softball size.”
Other producing regions
Domestically, the only other area that grows passion fruit is California, though its crop is a summertime one. Australia and New Zealand are the only regions that can ship fruit into the U.S.
However, meeting this strong demand is ever-decreasing crop acreage. In the Homestead region, where much of the state’s tropical agricultural growing is done, smaller growers are continually selling off land to developers. “They’re making more money selling their land than they could ever make farming,” says Sever, noting that Exotic Growers had started with about 80 acres of passion fruit but are now down to 40 acres. Passion fruit is also a labor-intensive crop in which each fruit is hand pollinated.
All of this leaves pricing at about $40-$45, a year-round price for the shipper, depending on the size.
For more information:
Dennis Sever
Exotic Growers, Inc.
Tel: +1 (305) 393-1556
dennissever@icloud.com