A man of passion

13 January, 2006

FOOD AND BEVERAGE : MEDIA RELEASES 2006

Two weeks ago Richard Roscoe thought he'd have to dig a big hole and bury his entire passionfruit crop. Adverse weather damaged much of the first crop he'd planted on a hectare at Pukenui in the Far North so, rather than having smooth, flawless skins, his passionfruit were not exactly pretty. Not that that affected their flavour.

But for Richard, it was totally discouraging because it meant he could not export his fruit as planned.

At that time, Lyn Barnes, who is co-ordinating a regional database of specialty growers and producers for Enterprise Northland, contacted Richard after being given his name. They discussed the possibilities of his passionfruit and value-adding. He couldn't sell at a regional farmers' market because he has to pick fruit every morning and there's only him, his wife Karen and daughter Aimee on hand.

Two weeks later Richard phoned Lyn, wanting to know if she thought it would be worth selling fresh pulp. Within a day Richard made contact with other supportive producers in Northland and it was all go. He also advertised some one-litre bottles of pulp on the Trade Me website to work out his pricing.

Then one person put Richard in touch with another, and another. And the orders started coming in. Richard now pulps to order in the evenings and couriers out fresh fruit in a bottle the next morning.

“The furthest so far is to Carterton,” he says with relief. “We can leave the fruit to sweeten before pulping according to what the customer's needs. For adding to sweetened foods it's fine straight off the vine,” he says. “To eat by the spoonful out of the bottle, we will leave it to sweeten for a week or so for the fruit to wrinkle before pulping.

“The fruit pulp is extracted by hand so there is no pith in it. And no additives; not even water. Just pure fruit. Our fruit has had no insecticide applied to it, and we don't need to use weed killing spray, due to the way our orchard is set up,” he adds.

Already restaurants and gourmet food producers are buying up large.

“It takes around three kilograms of fruit to make 1 litre of pulp so we need to get about $30 per litre to make it worth while. This works out to be a good deal for both parties.”

Richard says pricing will be set at the time of order according to market prices.

Currently Pukenui Passionfruit pulp is selling in three sizes: 300 ml bottles max peak season price $10 + GST & courier; 1 litre bottle max peak season price $29 + GST & courier; 2 litre bottle max peak season price $57 + GST & courier.

• Pukenui Passionfruit, ph: 09-409 8475, email: roscoe@xtra.co.nz