Super Food – Queen Garnet Plumb
An antioxidant-rich plum accidentally bred by Queensland government scientists a decade ago is being hailed as a potential weapon in the fight against obesity.
The manager of the country’s only Queen Garnet orchard said the plum was a freak which emerged when plant breeders tried to develop a better-tasting plum resistant to the bacterial spot disease.
“They just got a freakish aligning of the genes,” Rowan Berecry from Good Rich Fruit Co said
A variety of plum described as a ‘super-fruit’ has hit Western Australian stores this month.
Father and son, Tony and David Giumelli, believe they are the first commercial producers of the plum in Western Australia.
The Giumellis have been producing Queen Garnets for five years, however this is the first time they are sending the product to market.
“We’re really strict on getting the right product out on the market, and we’ve had to … work out what is the right fruit to put on the market,” David Giumelli explained.
“Weather and other conditions last year sort of stopped us from producing what we claim to be the ‘Queen Garnet’.
“So we’re really happy with this year’s crop and the taste, the flavour, the fruit’s up to scratch so we’re happy to release it on the market.”
Alongside challenges in the climate and weather, David Giumelli said although the plum yields well, it is very different to other varieties.
“We’ve got to leave it on the tree for a lot longer time to get that high antioxidant quality up to it,” he said.
“So it’s been hard to sort of judge how long do you leave it on there, and when do you pick it.”
However, Tony Giumelli said leaving the fruit on the tree can be “very concerning at times”.
“You wonder whether or not you’re leaving it too long, but we found that this fruit hangs very well,” he said.
“And because it colours up so early, you’re tempted to go in too early, and that would be the worst thing we could do.”
Due to the reported health benefits of the fruit, the Giumellis hope to be able to demand a premium price for the variety.
In its first weeks of sale, the Queen Garnet has been retailing for $15.90 per kilogram in one Australian chain supermarket.
“We’d like to get at least twice as much [return] as a regular [plum] for it,” David Giumelli said.
“Obviously at the moment we haven’t met the demand so it’s quite hard to judge a level price that we’re going to get for it.”
Although the Giumellis are concerned of pricing consumers out of the market, they believe at the end of the day the product compares more with blueberries than plums.
“The average price for blueberries is running at about $40 a kilo, we think $10 to $15 a kilo [for the Queen Garnet] is quite reasonable,” David Giumelli said.
A large part of the Giumellis taking the risk with the Queen Garnet comes from their belief in the health benefits, and the associated marketing opportunities.
Although clinical trials with humans are ongoing, early results have been described as “amazing’..
In order to capitalise on the potential premium, the Giumellis have taking it upon themselves to prove the health benefits of their fruit, sending samples to a scientist in Perth, who is testing antioxidant levels.
“Every farm’s different, every state’s different, and to say that the fruit has this much antioxidants in Queensland would be, not lying, but we just want to, for our own peace of mind, test our fruit and that way we can really market with some confidence.”
Thanks to ABC News