Following the opening of the U.S. market late last year, Top Eden Fruits owner Yossi Zaphrir said current supply levels were far behind international demand, with the trend toward exotics remaining strong.
“The demand is big, and it’s coming from all over,” he told www.freshfruitportal.com.
“In the U.K. there has been quite good acceptance of our varieties over the last two years. If we had three or four times more than what we have now, we still wouldn’t have enough.”
Zaphrir said that even in Germany, whose population he described as being ‘fairly conservative when it came to food’, demand for the exotic category was rising at a surprising rate.
“Exotic fruits have really changed. See what happened with the mangoes and avocados – they were quite unknown before and now they are almost becoming a commodity,” he said.
“That is what I’m trying to achieve here. The pitahaya could one day become a commodity like those two fruits.
“Especially with the mango – Tommy Atkins was once the variety that everyone wanted because it was nice, but today they are asking for all the varieties that have taste, like the Shelly and the Maya.”
Zaphrir is unconcerned about competition in Europe and North America from Vietnam, confident that Israel’s pitaya varieties which resulted from extensive breeding programs will be no match for what the Asian country.
“There is no comparison between our pitaya and the dragon fruit that comes from Vietnam,” he said.
The grower said the U.S. market share of his exports could reach more than 50% in the future, taking some of the focus away from the current top markets of the U.K. and Germany.
He is also trying to boost production from the current levels of up to about 200 metric tons (MT) on a problem-free year, but lamented that labor remained a major challenge.
“It is our biggest barrier,” he said.
“On the pitahaya farms we need specialized labor and people with a lot of patience, but the government is keeping us from getting the labor that we really need. If we could get more, we could produce more.”
Pitahaya grown in Israel has two seasons annually, the running from July to December, and then from December to April.
