Rambutan, chempedak, and abiu: Taiwan's tropical fruits have the potential to become the next stars

Rambutan, chempedak, abiu, star apple, Brazilian cherry, white sapote, jaboticaba, and red dragon fruit - how many of these new types of fruit, which have been gradually developed in Taiwan in recent years, have you eaten?

These fruits were trial-planted and researched, and scholars Liu Bijuan and Yan Changrui proposed them as tropical fruit trees suitable for cultivation in Taiwan. Among them, only red dragon fruit has risen to the mainstream market, while the future of the other emerging fruits still awaits development. The scholars assess that the potential fruits for commercial cultivation in the future include rambutan, chempedak, and abiu. As the climate becomes more extreme and winters get hotter and hotter, what opportunities will these bring to Taiwan's agriculture? Which fruits have development potential?

Taiwan is a treasure island of fruit, and climate warming helps chempedak propagate

"Most fruit trees from the tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones can find a place to grow in Taiwan, and there is no major problem with the cultivation environment." Fruit tree expert and professor of the Department of Horticulture at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Yan Changrui, said that Taiwan is a treasure island for fruit production. For two to three hundred years, foreign fruits such as mango, wax apple, guava, and sugar apple have been introduced to Taiwan one after another, gradually adapting to the climate and soil and becoming stably cultivated.

Affected by climate warming, in terms of the growing environment for emerging tropical fruit trees in Taiwan, "climate" and "weather" are both opportunities and threats. Take chempedak, native to the Malaysia and Indonesia region, as an example: its most suitable growing temperature is an annual average temperature of 27 to 31°C. According to the Taiwan Climate Change Projection Information and Adaptation Knowledge Platform, the annual average temperature recorded at the Hengchun station broke through 26°C for the first time in 2015, and in recent years these tropical fruit trees can gradually be seen in rural areas of central and southern Taiwan.

As early as the 1990s, the Fengshan Tropical Horticultural Experiment Branch of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute of the Council of Agriculture (hereinafter referred to as the "Fengshan Branch of the Agricultural Research Institute") had already introduced chempedak, but because Taiwan occasionally has cold spells, young plants could not successfully survive the winter. Only in recent years, through grafting techniques using jackfruit, which is more strongly adapted to Taiwan's climate, as rootstock, has trial cultivation gradually succeeded. Although climate warming gives chempedak the opportunity to grow in Taiwan, once there is a low temperature lasting several days, young plants may still be unable to withstand the cold and die.

Favorable natural conditions of timing and terrain nurture sweet abiu

Abiu, which is rich in pectin and has semi-transparent flesh, is also one of the tropical fruit trees that has taken root in Taiwan. Taitung Taimali fruit grower Liao Junsheng once tested the differences in growing abiu on flat land and on hillsides, and found that trees planted at an altitude of 350 to 400 m facing east and embraced by mountain ranges absorbed Pacific water vapor and minerals from the air. Together with the environment of partial sunlight and large temperature differences, the fruit produced had a firm texture and higher sweetness.

Favorable natural conditions of timing and terrain are a gift from heaven. "In the morning the sea breeze blows, and in the afternoon the mountain breeze comes down. The orchard is located among enveloping valleys. The sea breeze contains many marine trace elements such as sodium ions, which drift up and accumulate in the valley - under the blowing of mountain breeze and sea breeze, abundant natural substances remain in the orchard, so the fruit naturally grows better and the production period is also extended."

Favorable natural conditions of timing and terrain are a gift from heaven. Liao Junsheng also uses production period regulation to differentiate product prices from the auction market. "The production period on flat land is from May to August. Flatland fruit sells cheaply, so we shift our production period to August through May of the following year. At least 10 months are our production period, and we do not need to compete with the flatland."

Rambutan that makes new residents scream

Because planting emerging fruit trees is full of uncertainty, developing new types of fruit is not the government's main policy. Many interviewees said frankly - "Emerging fruit trees are led by the private sector first," said Cai, a fruit grower in Gaoshu, Pingtung, who cultivates 12 hectares of rambutan.