'THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN BABACO DEBACLE'
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Carica pentagona
FAMILY: Caricaceae
The Babaco (Carica pentagona) is noteworthy in that it may well become a highly documented case study in the obstacles facing the promotion and marketing of new rare fruit in Australia. It is interesting to consider the excerpts from the article entitled 'The Marketing of Exotic Fruits' in the March, 1989 Newsletter #55 of the Rare Fruit Council of Australia. In this report, the authors include babaco as one of several fruits along with pepino, casimiroa and jak fruit, all once considered 'Exotic Fruit' with great commercial potential, but now described as 'Exotic Failures', whose futures are greatly questioned. The reasons given for the 'Great Australian Babaco Debacle' are that some considered the fruit lacking in a distinct flavor ("flavour" for you Aussies), further complicated by the fact that fruit were often marketed in an unripe state.
If I could be so bold (I happen to be half-Australian), I would like to offer some observations of this whole situation for our rare fruit enthusiast friends in Australia to consider.
First of all, the Australian commercialization of Caimito and Abiu is quite admirable, and to be highly recommended. However, I must say that some have really missed the boat with babaco. Allow me to establish that babaco became an "Exotic Failure" in Australia, not because of babaco itself. Babaco is a good fruit. Not everyone is going to love it, but not everyone has to love it for it to be a commercial success. In spite of the fact many consider grapefruit to be too tart, it developed from an obscure sport of pummelo in Jamaica into a multi-million dollar a year world-wide industry. Someone out there must love grapefruit!
One must understand that with present production and future production projections, Kiwi will no longer be a minor fruit. Within ten years, its world-wide production and consumption figures will approach those of the apple, forever establishing it as a major global fruit. Who could have predicted the development of a Kiwi Wine Industry? Kiwi fruit points up a valuable lesson for would-be marketers of exotic fruit: every individual fruit has its own unique advantages and disadvantages in both production and marketing. For instance, while Kiwi clearly lacked in the all-important appearance category, it probably has a longer shelf life than any other fruit marketed in the world today. Carambola is the exact reverse: it is just as well that it has such a unique and attractive appearance, because its shelf life is rather short in comparison.
Babaco has its own inherent assets and liabilities, and the perverse attitude that has led Australians to simply dismiss it as "bland tasting" to be left in obscurity where it was found, does not serve the interests of the tremendous potential of the Australian fruit industry. It takes an experienced professional in the field of marketing to assess the good and bad characteristics of any new fruit, and tackle the establishment of it on the world's markets. Marketing is a complex endeavor not to be left to amateurs, especially not when it comes to the entry of a new food item for grocery shelves where razor-thin margins mean that sales performance must be proven literally within hours.
So many are quick to go off of the deep end over fruit such as the mangosteen. Sure, mangosteen is a tremendous fruit, but even it has its great problems. Alan Carle and his friends in Far North Queensland have quite an investment going with this fruit. My question is this: "Alan, are you planting those trees for you, or for your children?" Ten to twenty years is an awfully long time to wait just for first fruiting. The United Fruit Company didn't give up on its 'largest mangosteen grove in the world' in Honduras a few decades back just because they were stupid. Now, on the other hand, we have this fruit called the babaco. Return on its investment (ROI) is shorter than just about any other fruit. The two year ROI for both pineapple and banana is highly recognized by investors in those industries. The two years needed for carambola is in good part responsible for the great success of its Florida commercialization from rather humble beginnings as budsticks of superior cultivars in Dr. Robert Knight's return suitcases from Malaysia just a decade ago. And yet, babaco is twice as fast as even these short ROI, and possesses a 10-20 X quicker ROI than mangosteen.
Yes, Australians and Californians, babaco holds for you exactly and precisely what you wish to make from it. Remember that Babaco will never be a success, and will never be a failure; Babaco simply is. Any "success" or "failure" to be had, will be had by those who choose to have it.
DATE: March 1990
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
