TFNet News Compilation (Page 139)

With worldwide demand for chocolate outstripping the production of cocoa beans, the hunt is on for viable alternatives.   One of the possibilities is jackfruit, a large tropical fruit found in South America, Asia, Africa and Australia. In a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists report that compoundsContinue Reading

It might be a healthy food choice, but Hong Kong’s latest fruit fad is doing serious damage to shoppers’ wallets.     From luxury supermarkets to outdoor stalls, expensive premium produce is increasingly on show and sought after by customers.   At Hong Kong’s vibrant Yau Ma Tei fruit market,Continue Reading

Edible bananas have been grown for the first time in Exeter – with some musical help.   The mini versions of the popular fruit of the Musa acuminata ‘Dwarf Cavendish’ – normally only found in tropical countries – have been cultivated at a greenhouse at the University’s Streatham campus. TheyContinue Reading

At the end of Hana’s heavenly highway, Lilly Boerner found her paradise.   All around her home grows luscious tropical fruit, from avocado and cherimoya to papaya and rambutan. It’s not only her family’s own private Eden, but its livelihood.   “Today, we have a family business,” said Boerner, aContinue Reading

Forget apples, pears and clementines. In some parts of the world, fruit isn’t just sphere-shaped with a colorful peel. In Hawaii, for example, they eat a fruit with multicolored spikes that looks more like a Pokemon than something edible.     The mysterious fruit comes from a tree called theContinue Reading

The Philippines has boasted of an early win in its pivot from the US to China: a surge in sales of tropical fruits for which President Rodrigo Duterte’s home island is renowned.     Exports of Philippine bananas have soared since the outspoken leader’s landmark October trip to Beijing led China toContinue Reading

The sweet smell of fermenting fruit fills the streets around the modest Havana home where Orestes Estevez and his family fill glass jugs with grapes, ginger and hibiscus, then slip a condom over each glass neck to start the unusual process of winemaking in a land famed for rum. FromContinue Reading

The road to Thimmamma Marrimanu leads through one of the driest parts of India. I picked it up in a town called Kadiri and drove another hour through camelback mountains and peanut fields. Granite boulders covered the brown landscape like a crumble topping. Nature had been stingy with the flora—saving up,Continue Reading

A new project will be allowing banana growers in the tropics to stop shipping 95 percent of their production to Argentina.   Guzmán explained that the pilot test to export the product lasted from 9 December to 20 January. In that time, the fruit was kept in a cold chamber inContinue Reading

As Cyclone Debbie barrels across the north Queensland coast, Australia’s winter fruit supply is in danger of being wiped out.   The storm, which on Tuesday night was downgraded to category two, is expected to tear through large parts of the coast, from Ayr to St Lawrence, with possible wind speeds of upContinue Reading

New Zealand imports about 72,000 tonnes of bananas annually, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.     Each New Zealander eats around 18kg of bananas a year – an estimated cost of about $88 per household, or more than $142 million a year.   New Zealand imports more bananasContinue Reading