An unpleasant future has been averted for Australians who love purple-skinned passionfruit, ensuring there will be delicious new fruit to try in the coming years.
For the first time in more than two decades, a range of new purple-skinned varieties has been developed for farmers to evaluate.
Passionfruit growers met with researchers to test their new varieties. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
The problem
Just three years ago, growers in passionfruit’s historical heartlands of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales were extremely worried.
The reliability of the popular hybrids Sweetheart and Misty Gem had been failing for more than a decade, pushing some farmers out of the industry.
Purple-skinned passionfruit are packed with juice and bursting with flavour. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)
The vines have been producing fewer, smaller fruit and have become increasingly susceptible to pests and fungal disease.
Growers and the federal government co-funded an urgent Hort Innovation research program to find replacements.
But in 2023 their hopes fell flat when the project leader left, and more than six years of work stalled.
Most of the crop is sold as fresh fruit. (Supplied)
Rescuing the program
The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at the University of Queensland took up the challenge, and their rapid progress is providing hope.
Growers graded the new varieties on qualities including taste and colour. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
The mood was optimistic as growers gathered at the Maroochy Research Centre.
They tested nine of 22 new purple-skinned varieties the program has already produced, with many more in the pipeline.
Two of the new passionfruit varieties under evaluation. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Fruit was laid on the table and judged for its flavour, internal and external appearance, aroma, sweetness, balanced with acidity, and aftertaste.
“We didn’t have new [purple] varieties for a long time, more than 20 years,” senior research fellow Mobashwer Alam said.
“This breeding program is required to help the industry to survive.
“I’m really excited, I’m very happy.”
Mobashwer Alam is consulting with farmers like “Mr Passionfruit” Keith Paxton. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
‘Phenomenal’ progress
Dr Alam has worked on other plant breeding programs where producing a new macadamia variety took 24 years, and sorghum, more than four.
Determined to accelerate the work with purple passionfruit, he assembled a team of academics that collaborated with growers to propagate and trial new purple-skinned varieties in different locations.
Dennis Chant has welcomed the research. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
“The progress that UQ has made here over the last three years has been quite phenomenal,” Passionfruit Australia executive and Tweed Valley grower Dennis Chant said.
“There’s been a very structured scientific approach … we’re holding out high hopes.”
While growers are still deciding on which varieties to trial on a commercial scale, Dr Alam admitted to having a personal favourite — UQP1.
University of Queensland researchers say the UQP1 variety is particularly promising. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
“That is producing a lot of fruit … and it produced throughout 75 per cent of the year, so growers will make profit because they don’t drop all at once,” he said.
“They start early and finish late, so the growers can collect and sell to the market for a long time.”
Put to the test
Brad Millard is one of the growers needing reliable replacements for Sweetheart and Misty Gem.
Brad Millard is testing new varieties on his farm in Beenham Valley in south-east Queensland. (ABC News: Jennifer Nichols)
“We didn’t realise how good we had it,” Mr Millard said.
He is trialling QAAFI’s new varieties in Valley Passions’ nursery about 190 kilometres north of Brisbane, where he grafts passionfruit for the industry.
The vibrant colours of the UQP5 variety. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
“We get the first look at them to see whether they’ll be commercial or not,” he said.
“It has to eat well, it has to look good, but after that it’s just ease of growing.”
A Woombye nursery where passionfruit are grown from seed and grafted. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
The history of passionfruit
Originating in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, passionfruit was commercialised in the late 1800s, cultivated for its sweet seedy fruit that is both eaten and juiced.
They are considered a good source of fibre, potassium and vitamin C.
The Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook 2024/25 valued the crop at $30.8 million, with 5,522 tonnes of fruit produced, with the majority sold as fresh fruit.
Consumer trends still favour purple-skinned passionfruit, but Panama-style varieties have helped expand the industry geographically.
Panama hybrid passionfruits grown in the Darwin rural area. (ABC Rural: Matt Brann)
They have pretty red to light yellow and golden skins.
Queensland grew 59.2 per cent of the passionfruit crop that financial year and New South Wales 34.2 per cent.
There were a small number of commercial growers in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria.
Purple-skinned passionfruit packed to send to market. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Despite Vietnam and New Zealand having permission to send fresh passionfruit to Australia, the fruit you will find for sale here is Australian-grown.
Hort Innovation has no records of fresh passionfruit being imported in recent years.
