WITH demand exceeding supply, and a domestic market that is growing at a good rate, Chris Stillard, Barooga based persimmon grower and president of Persimmons Australia, sees the huge potential for this orange fruit, himself investing significantly in the crop to become one of the largest producers of sweet persimmons in Australia.
"Local recognition and appreciation of persimmons is steadily on the rise," said Chris as the local season draws to a close, and consumers look to imported fruit to fill the void.
In season from late February to mid–June, Australia imports a further 445 tonnes of fruit between June and November to meet local demand, and is not yet producing the quantities needed to develop significant export markets.
Producing annually just over 2500 tonnes – with a gross value of $11.6 million – Australia's harvest represents less than one per cent of world production, with Chris seeing not only the huge opportunity for regional expansion of new varieties to close this market gap domestically, but also the potential of developing a more robust export market .
The New South Wales Department of Primary Industries spruik persimmons as one of the 'next up and coming emerging markets'.
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"The market does need to get to a point of surplus, before we can tackle the holy grail of exporting," Chris said.
"Persimmons should not be refrigerated as this will hasten the decaying process of the fruit, so the potential at the moment is for Australian producers to trial different varietals to extend the season, and then look to developing the export market during the Northern Hemisphere off–season.
"But that said the domestic market is still relatively untapped, with room to grow.
"With more fruit making it into local supermarkets it is getting bought and tried though, and we're seeing return customers.
"So the feeling is incredibly optimistic."
Currently with seven hectares under persimmons, Chris's love affair with persimmons began 17 years ago, when he leased Marboc, his uncle's property in the New South Wales border town of Barooga on the Murray River.
Producing lucerne and cereal hay, Chris's uncle had also diversified into persimmons, believing the horticultural route was the best fit for maintaining and improving the good quality soil that the Barooga based property was blessed with.
"Instead of buying more land and getting bigger, my uncle decided the prudent path was to improve on the land he had," Chris said.
It is a belief that Chris also shares, for though he himself has expanded on the property and continues to farm lucerne, pure clover and oaten hay, he is also in the process of planting out an additional 3000 persimmon trees on the original property, to bring the total to 7000.
"Persimmons are an autumn crop, so the beauty of it all is that just as the lucerne finishes up mid–April, we start picking persimmons in early May," said Chris.
"The production cycles don't clash, and as we also have two different varieties of the fruit on the farm – Jiro which is an early variety, and Fuyu which is late – when one is finishing up, we move to the next.
"If the tree is healthy, the fruit is also quite happy to stay on the tree for a reasonable amount of time.
"And as the fruit doesn't ripen off the tree, if you want the full sweetness of the fruit you do need to leave it on the tree for longer."
Large, heart shaped fruit that range in colour from pale orange to deep red–orange, original persimmons need to be harvested when fully mature and the flesh is soft and jelly–like, otherwise the fruit is incredibly astringent.
Sweet persimmon, which equate to over 90 per cent of Australian production, are a smaller, round fruit with a diameter of around 10 centimetres and a slightly flattened top with a green stem called a calyx.
Both varietals that Chris grows are sweet persimmon.
Ranging in colour from pale orange to deep red–orange, the sweet persimmon is non–astringent and has an edible peel and can be eaten either when it is crisp and crunchy or soft depending on preference and purpose.
A temperate fruit with a sweet, honeyed flavour, persimmons grow all the way down the east coast of Australia, from the cooler climes of the Atherton Tablelands in north east Queensland to the High Country of Stanley and Myrtleford.
The fruit doesn't get knocked around by the cold, with the only concern that the season can get too cool before the fruit has finished ripening.
Australia exports 183 tonnes of persimmons annually – primarily to Singapore and Malaysia – with only 120 persimmon growers nationally.
The majority of these growers are small scale producers, with persimmons added as a subsidiary crop to their business model.
There is only a handful of growers who have between 5000 and 10,000 trees, and who like Chris concentrate their horticultural efforts on persimmons.
Queensland in the last 20 years has grown the majority of the fruit commanding between 50 and 60 per cent of the market, however, as the popularity of the fruit has increased so too have southern growers looking to break into the market.
"New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are really hitting their straps," said Chris.
"And it won't be long before Victoria and New South Wales are the bigger producers, as there has been a proliferation of plantings in southern regions recently."
In fact popularity for the orange fruiting tree in southern growing regions, has seen some nurseries record a two to three year wait on persimmons as more growers become interested in the fruit.
Less productive than stone fruit, growers are looking at an average of five years dependent on the variety, before they see a return on their investment.
"The industry average is 17 tonnes per hectare," Chris said of production, "with commercial returns for producers on the fruit between $2 and $6.50 per kilo, for the top tier fruit.
"I have had yields of up to 30 tonnes in the orchard, generally though, if you let your tree grow too much fruit, you do end up with smaller sized persimmons.
"Size is worth money, so it's wise to thin the tree in spring so that your fruiting numbers are a good number, and as the fruit tends to grow on fresh wood, it's always good to remove the old wood.
"Also as persimmon trees bear fruit every alternate year, the following season this bi–annual tree will put on a light crop, so it does have to be managed.
"Although reasonably hardy, they do require looking after, and you do want to put them on your best soils on the farms."
Like Chris's uncle did many years ago when diversifying into horticulture.
This decision to plant persimmons has dictated the direction Chris's life has taken since he took over the family farm.
On the executive body of Persimmons Australia for 12 years, Chris is going into his fourth year as president, and his passion for this orange fruit doesn't appear to be abating.
"I have the interest and the desire to see the industry going forward, and I enjoy communicating with growers, working through their problems and wins, and sharing information," he said.
"There's still not a lot known about the agronomy of persimmons, because we're still quite a fledgling industry in Australia.
"However, all members of Persimmons Australia do contribute a small levy towards research and development so we can broaden our knowledge, both on a domestic level, but also looking to the growers overseas, and we do encourage sharing of information so that growers are talking to growers, for the benefit of the industry overall.
"Which is a sentiment we all seem to share.
"We just want to see the industry thrive, as we all see the massive potential."
