The Lime Caviar Company is the only supplier in Australia, and owner Ian Douglas says the frozen product is 100 per cent pure and natural.
"When you freeze a whole finger lime it goes through the ice crystal creation period very slowly, which is from zero to minus five (degrees) and when something freezes through that temperature range you get a large ice crystals growing. But with whole finger limes that happens and it destroys the little pearls inside the finger lime, so when they thaw out they are like mush. Our process eliminates that, so when the finger lime is thawed out they are just like fresh."
Mr Douglas says there are a number of advantages of freezing the product, including the restrictions surrounding fruit fly meaning that finger lime growers cannot export to biggest markets in the world, such as China, Japan, Taiwan, USA, South Korea, India, Indonesia and New Zealand.
"Another reason is the finger lime season in Australia is January to May, so for eight months of the year there are no finger limes available," he said. "So we wanted to be able to supply restaurants and hotels and private individuals with finger limes during that period - especially the spring time and racing carnival period and Christmas."
After taking seven years to develop, it was launched into the market in April this year, it is being distributed domestically by Simon Johnson, Jimele and Tuckeroo Foods and is currently available in some stores in Melbourne and South East Queensland. Demand for the frozen finger lime pearls is also increasing internationally with the product being supplied to several countries in Europe, North America and Asia.
"We had to create new markets for this, because not having existed before we are in the process of educating chefs about it and what it is," Mr Douglas said. "This year (production) was probably 40 per cent fresh and 60 per cent frozen, and a lot of the frozen is stockpiled for spring and Christmas. It is just a question as to whether we have enough until we start extracting the pearls again in January. In the future we might do 80 per cent frozen and 20 per cent fresh."
The company, which was also a gold medallist in the 2018 Delicious Produce Awards, currently has 4,000 trees in various stages of production, and in the upcoming season will be bringing in new finger limes from other growers. Mr Douglas says the product has a number of different uses for consumers.
"The taste is tangy, but it is according to variety," he said. "The green ones Emerald and pink which we call Sunrise. The green pearls are used more by chefs on oysters and meat dishes, and with cheese. The pink ones and reddish ones are a bit sweeter and have a bit of a mandarin-like flavour and they are used on sweet dishes with fruit, ice cream, yoghurt and cakes. Both colours are being used widely by bars in gin and tonic and champagne and various cocktails. So, I would love to go to Las Vegas and try a few of them myself."
Mr Douglas is also calling on the Australian government to help protect the native Australian fruit, saying that people who create the trees are taking them out of the country - both lawfully and illegally - with big plantations being created in Mexico and Guatemala of up to 20,000 trees.
"It is a bit of a disaster in that sense for Australian finger lime growers - this unique Australian native is being shipped offshore," he said. "I have been trying to get both public servants and politicians interested in this issue for over 10 years and no-one has shown the slightest bit of interest. It's now too late to shut the door - the horse has bolted. There's a protocol in place that allows trees to go into USA, and they can even small finger limes growing on them - but we can't even send the fresh product there."
"They are being grown in Sicily, Israel, South Africa, propagated in Thailand and sent everywhere," Mr Douglas said. "There are a few people and groups trying to do what we are doing. There's a group called Shanley farms in California, they are reputable people, and they have developed a similar product but they are not frozen - so they have a shorter shelf life. There's another group in Spain that have done a similar thing. But ours is the best because it has a 12-month shelf life - and it is spoonable. The finger limes that are being grown in Australia are much better than those being grown overseas."
