Looking for the next Taiwan fruit star! Tropical fruits rambutan, durian honey and golden fruit have great potential for development.

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Rambutan, durian honey, golden fruit, star apple, Brazilian cherry, white persimmon, Jiabao fruit, red dragon fruit, these new fruits that have been gradually developed in Taiwan in recent years, which have you eaten?

After trial planting and research, scholars Liu Bijuan and Yan Changrui put forward tropical fruit trees that are suitable for growing in Taiwan, of which only Honglong fruit has jumped into the mainstream market, and the way out for other emerging fruits still needs to be explored. Scholars estimate that the potential fruits for commercial cultivation in the future include rambutan, durian honey, and golden fruits. With extreme weather and hotter winters, what opportunities will they bring to Taiwan's agriculture?. Which fruits have development potential?

Rambutan (Photo / Chen Pinjun) Taiwan is a fruit island, and climate warming helps durian honey to thrive.

"most tropical, subtropical and temperate fruit trees can be found locally in Taiwan, and there is no big problem in the cultivation environment." Yen Chang-Rui, an expert on fruit trees and a professor in the Department of Agriculture at the University of screen Science and Technology, says that Taiwan is a treasure island of fruit production. Over the past two or three hundred years, exotic fruits such as mango, lotus fog, guava, and Sakya have been introduced to Taiwan one after another, gradually adapting to the climate and soil and being cultivated steadily.

Affected by climate warming, "climate" and "weather" are both opportunities and threats to the growing environment of emerging tropical fruit trees in Taiwan. Take durian honey native to Malaysia and Indonesia as an example, the most suitable growth temperature is 27 to 31 ℃ per year. According to Taiwan's climate change estimation information and adjustment knowledge platform, the average annual temperature measured by Hengchun station exceeded 26 °C for the first time in 2015. In recent years, these tropical fruit trees can be gradually seen in the south-central countryside.

Durian honey was introduced to the Fengshan Tropical Horticulture Branch of the Agricultural Experimental Institute of the Agricultural Commission of the Agriculture Commission as early as the 1990s, but because of the occasional cold spell in Taiwan, the young plants could not survive the winter smoothly. in recent years, through grafting technology, using Boramie, which is highly adaptable to Taiwan's climate, as rootstock, the trial is gradually successful. Although climate warming gives durian honey the opportunity to grow in Taiwan, once there is a low temperature that lasts for a few days, the young plants may not be able to withstand the cold and die.

In recent years, many farmers in rural Pingtung have turned betel nuts, and many people choose to plant new fruit trees that are easy to manage, such as durian honey and golden fruits. (photo / Chen Pinjun) the local conditions in the right place at the right time give birth to sweet golden fruit

The golden fruit, which is rich in colloid and translucent flesh, is also one of the tropical fruit trees that have taken root in Taiwan. Liao Chun-sheng, a fruit grower in Tai Ma Li, Taitung, once tested the differences in planting golden fruits on flatlands and hillsides, and found that fruit trees planted in the mountains and east of 350 to 400 meters above sea level absorbed water vapor and minerals from the Pacific Ocean in the air. coupled with half-day sunshine and a large temperature difference, the fruit tastes tight and sweeter.

The land in the right place at the right time is a gift from heaven. "when the sea breeze blows in the morning and the mountain breeze comes down in the afternoon, the orchard is located in a covered valley. Many marine trace elements such as sodium ions in the sea breeze will float up and hoard ── in the valley. Under the blowing of the mountain breeze and sea breeze, the rich natural substances remain in the orchard, the fruit will naturally grow better, and the delivery period will be prolonged."

Being in the right place at the right time is a gift from heaven, and Liao Junsheng also divides the price of products in the auction market through the adjustment of the delivery date. "the flat production period is from May to August. Flat land sells cheaply, so we move our production date to August to May next year. At least 10 months are our production period, so we don't have to compete with flat land. "

Huang Jinguo (Photography / Chen Pinjun) A rambutan screamed by new residents

Because the cultivation of new fruit trees is full of uncertainty, the research and development of new fruits is not the main policy of the government. Many interviewees confessed that ─ "emerging fruit trees are people walking ahead," Cai, a tall fruit farmer in Pingtung who grows 12 hectares of rambutan.