With Christmas approaching, the carambola is seeing increased demand. The stone fruit does particularly well as a garnish. The imported volumes are small, however. Traders who carry the product in their range, say that they only import very limited volumes. “It’s a relatively small market,” one importer says. The company imports the carambolas from Malaysia. And although the volumes are small, he is willing to say a thing or two about the market.
Remarkably, the stone fruit is mostly known as a green fruit. It’s remarkable because a green carambola isn’t ripe. “A ripe carambola is yellow,” the importer says. “But I’m not succeeding in getting a yellow carambola sold yet. That’s due to the expectation of the customer. Consumers only know the bright green carambola.” So the fruit is mainly known as a garnish. Generally, three sizes are carried: 12, 20 and 24. The sizes 20 and 24 are particularly popular.
The carambola is popular in the United States. According to Peter Leifermann of Brooks Tropical, the yield continues to increase year after year. The carambola is grown in Miami-Dade county, and on Pine Island in Florida. On FreshPlaza.com, the American talked about the developments in the market. While thirty years ago the fruit was still seen as an exotic, the market for the starfruit is bigger nowadays. One of the reasons for that is because more Asians and Hispanics live in the US, who know and consume the fruit.