The rise of the fruit that tastes like custard

Ashoka Shivareddy comes from a farming family, but it was difficult to make a living in the drought-prone Kolar region in southern India.

“The region receives only 60 to 70 centimeters of rainfall and farmers are digging boreholes up to 400 metres; most of their money goes towards water exploration,” he says.

After mounting losses, the family gave up farming and moved to the city, Bengaluru, in 2005 and opened a vegetable shop.

Shivareddy became an AI software engineer but never lost the farming bug.

In 2018, he decided to revitalize the family farm, but with a more scientific approach.

“I was looking for a crop that could survive on very little water, grow on rain, and not be too reliant on pesticides,” he explains.

Custard apple seemed like a good choice. The creamy, sweet flesh of a tuberous fruit about the size of a large avocado tastes a bit like custard – hence the name.

Custard apple trees grew wild in Shivareddy’s area and local people used to collect the fruits and sell them in the market. This looked promising for Shivareddy.

In an effort to maximize his yield, he planted trees closer together than on typical farms.

Shivareddy has also carefully selected three varieties, each with different benefits. The approach seems to be working.

“Last year, I produced around 20 tons. This year, it is around 25 tons. There is a great demand for custard apples in India and abroad,” he says.

Although custard apples can survive dry conditions, growing them has its challenges.

The traditional Balangar variety has a very short shelf life, sometimes as short as three or four days, limiting the farmer’s sales options. It also has a lot of seeds, making it less attractive to the customer.

Principal scientist at the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR), Bangalore. “Traditional varieties have excellent taste but suffer from low pulp content, high seed count and very poor shelf life,” says Sakthivel T.

His team developed a hybrid fruit called Arka Sahan, which has fewer seeds and more pulp and can survive for a week at room temperature.

In the last 20 years this diversity has spread to southern India.

“Switching from 30% pulp recovery in wild varieties to 70% recovery in hybrids like Arka Sahan has effectively doubled the usable harvest for farmers without needing more land,” says Sakthivel.

His team is now looking for better ways to process the fruit and extract its pulp so it can be used more widely in processed foods like ice cream and milkshakes.

One of the problems they are currently trying to fix is ​​that the custard apple pulp turns brown too quickly after extraction. Researchers at IIHR are experimenting with new equipment and techniques that will help creamed apple paste retain its milky color for longer.

The central Indian state of Maharashtra is the leading producer of custard apples, accounting for almost a third of national production.

This is where Navnath Malhari Kaspate has been growing fruit for decades.

He traveled across India to collect the seeds and brought them to his farm to cross-pollinate them.

“Nobody had really paid attention or researched the custard apple, so I decided to keep working on it. It takes 12 to 15 years to develop a new variety. It’s not a quick job, it’s decades of experimentation,” he says.

His work resulted in the variety NMK-01 (named after his initials), which is known to be high-yielding. It went on sale in 2014.

“We are currently growing custard apples on an area of ​​nearly 50 decares, with a yield of approximately 10 tons per decare. This improved variety, which does not spoil, has created an export opportunity. We started exporting to the Gulf countries, and even sent them to Europe; this is something that has not been done on this scale before,” he says.

Kaspate’s development continues; is currently working on a variety with a better appearance and greater resistance to diseases.

Manoj Kumar Barai exports NMK-01 variety to USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Europe.

“We prefer the NMK-01 variety for export because it has a better shelf life, thicker skin, more pulp and a sweeter taste than the others,” he says.

However, exporting such a delicate fruit requires a difficult process.

“We need to plan everything precisely – harvest time, transportation to packing plants, airport transfer, flights, customs clearance – every hour counts.”

Temperature control is critical.

“Custard apples are extremely sensitive to heat, and even brief exposure can shorten their shelf life,” he says.

Road trips are often made overnight to avoid the worst of the heat.

“In regions like Maharashtra, temperatures can go up to 40 degrees, even during transit it can go up to 30-35 degrees, which is not ideal for this fruit.”

The fruit is pre-chilled for five hours before being packaged and transported in refrigerated vans, and then stored in cold rooms before being transported by air.

Special corrugated boxes have been developed to protect fruit and help keep it cool.

Barai says more fruit is being exported in pulp or powder form, a “revolution” for the export industry.

The pulp is used in ice cream manufacturers, bakeries and “pulp” cafes abroad.

This is still not simple as the dough needs to be stored and transported at -18C.

However, it is still cheaper than air transport and allows large volumes of produce to be transported for weeks without any fruit being wasted.

Back in Kolar, Shivareddy wants to expand his business by selling the pulp as well as whole apples.

He plans to set up a pulp processing unit that will use the part of his crop that he cannot sell.

But removing the pulp and cooling it to -20°C requires significant investment in equipment and will bring a change of mindset for many farmers, he says.

“The custard apple sits in a strange void. Demand is rising, but farming has not gone high-tech because the crop is naturally resilient. It grows in poor soil, needs little water and survives on rain. Farmers don’t need expensive irrigation, sensors or controlled environments, so technology adoption remains low,” he says.

Business Technology