SOURCE: Felix Walton, RNZ New Zealanders are bananas for bananas, but the country relies on imports from Mexico, Ecuador and the Philippines for its supply. Some fruit growers hope to change that by sowing the seeds for a homegrown industry. Aotearoa imports roughly 85,000 tonnes of bananas each and everyContinue Reading
SOURCE: Josh Rubin, Toronto Star Would you pay $90 for a pineapple? Maui Gold pineapples — prized by aficionados for their sweetness, as well as notes of coconut and mango — are now available in Canada, couriered directly from the farm in Hawaii to your front door. The farm announcedContinue Reading
SOURCE: Agraria From August 1 to October 2 of this year, Peru exported 2,447,543 kilos of fresh mango, representing a growth of +950% compared to the 233,115 kilos registered in the same period of the previous year. This was confirmed by the president of the consulting firm Inform@cción, Fernando CillónizContinue Reading
SOURCE: Khoo Gek San The Malaysian jackfruit, with its unique sweetness, crunchy texture, and golden yellow colour, has piqued the interest of Chinese importers after its debut in China in September, say industry players. Exporter Dr Tan Sue Yee said the J33 honey jackfruit and J34 golden jackfruit have garneredContinue Reading
Chinese and Malaysian officials are in talks about opening the former country’s enormous market to exports of the latter’s fresh durians, as appetites grow for the famously pungent tropical fruits. Chan Foong Hin, Malaysia’s deputy minister of agriculture and food security, said via Facebook on Monday that his department metContinue Reading
SOURCE: Mohd Farhaan Shah, The Star Pineapple contract farming has proven to be successful in increasing income for planters, especially youths. Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (MPIB) chairman Sheikh Umar Bagharib Ali said this as he attended a launch ceremony for export of MD2 Malaysian pineapples to Japan by Aqina FoodContinue Reading
SOURCE: The Star A decapitated banana plant is almost useless, an inconvenience to the farmer who must then uproot it and lay its dismembered parts as mulch. But can such stems somehow be returned to life? Yes, according to a Ugandan company that’s buying banana stems in a business thatContinue Reading
SOURCE: Times of India The Jalgaon district administration has sought the help of Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth Rahuri to understand the spread and cause of ‘cucumber mosaic virus’ that affected banana plantations. Some of the plantations in Raver, Yawal and Muktainagar talukas have been affected by the virus, which hasContinue Reading
SOURCE: The Star Avocados, mangos, bananas and passion fruit — a wealth of exotic produce is growing under the shadow of Sicily’s Mount Etna, as the Italian island’s farmers adapt to global warming. In a setting more akin to the Tropics than Europe, fields of mango and avocado trees, punctuatedContinue Reading
PHOTO: Gabriel Malheiros, Datamar Brazil and Chile have completed the procedures related to opening the Chilean market to fresh papaya (“carica papaya”) for domestic consumption, following the review of certificates and on-site audits that informed the analysis and establishment of phytosanitary requirements. Brazil ranks second among the world’s leading exportersContinue Reading
SOURCE: Thi Ha China is expanding the cultivation of red-fleshed dragon fruit, which sells at lower prices than imports from Vietnam. Last year, it said it grew the fruit on 67,000 hectares and produced 1.6 million tons, which exceeded Vietnam’s output. The People’s Daily newspaper reported that farmers in CixiContinue Reading
SOURCE: Agatha Ngotho, The Star Farmers in Taita Taveta county have been trained on better agronomy in banana farming. The move seeks to help farmers increase crop yield, boost food security and improve their income. Scientists from Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) in Kenya trained the smallholder farmersContinue Reading