Top 4 Reasons Why Passion Fruit Is So Expensive

Passion fruit is a delicious tropical fruit that has become very expensive over the years. What makes passion fruit so expensive?

Passion fruits are native to South America and Mexico. They are also known as maracuja or maracuyo. The name comes from the Spanish word pasión meaning passion. This fruit is also called custard apple because of its sweet taste.

There are four main reasons why passion fruit is so expensive. First, they are extremely perishable. Second, they require special handling during transportation. Third, they are harvested at a specific time of year. And finally, they are grown in limited quantities.

So why is it so expensive? Let’s find out!

1. Its Perishability

This is one of the most important factors that make this fruit so expensive. You see, passion fruit ripens quickly after picking and starts to spoil within hours. If you don’t use them right away, they will go bad in just two days.

2. Special Handling During Transportation

This is another reason why passion fruit is expensive. After being picked, these fruits must be transported immediately to their destination. Otherwise, they start to rot.

3. Harvest Season

The harvest season for passion fruit is between June and August. But if you want to get the best quality fruit, then you have to wait until the end of July.

4. Limited Production

In order to keep prices low, there is only a limited amount of passion fruit produced each year. Therefore, once the supply gets exhausted, the price skyrockets.

Passionfruit vines need lots of care

If you grow passion fruit yourself, then you know how much work goes into growing these plants. It takes about five years before you can expect to harvest your first crop.

But even when you buy passion fruit plants, you still need to take care of them. For example, you should plant them in full sun and give them plenty of water. Also, you should fertilize them every month.

But what happens if you forget to do any of those things? Then your passion fruit won’t produce anything. That’s why we recommend buying organic passion fruit plants. These plants are guaranteed to grow well without pesticides.

How to Grow Passion Fruit Plants

Growing passion fruit plants isn’t difficult. However, you will need to prepare the soil properly. Here’s everything you need to know:

• Prepare the soil by adding compost.

• Add some fertilizer to help with growth.

• Plant your passion fruit seeds.

• Water regularly.

• Keep an eye on the temperature.

• Fertilize every month.

• Wait patiently for the fruit to mature.

• Pick the fruit when it’s ready.

• Enjoy eating fresh passion fruit.

It takes 2 years to get the harvest

When you buy passion fruit plants online, you may think that you can pick the fruit anytime. Unfortunately, that’s not true. To get the best-tasting fruit, you need to wait for two years.

However, once you get the fruit, you can eat it all year round. Just remember to store it in the fridge.

Passion fruit doesn’t ripen evenly

You might notice that some of your passion fruit aren’t as ripe as others. This is because they were picked too early or too late.

To avoid this problem, you should always choose the freshest fruit from your local market.

How to pick the best passion fruit?

There are many ways to tell whether a passion fruit is ripe or not. The easiest way is to smell it. When you smell the fruit, you should be able to detect its fragrance.

If you can’t smell anything, then the fruit probably isn’t ripe yet. In this case, you should leave it alone.

Another way to check if the fruit is ripe enough is to cut it open. If the inside looks yellowish, then the fruit isn’t ripe.

The best time to pick passion fruit

As mentioned earlier, passion fruit needs to stay away from direct sunlight. If you don’t follow this rule, then the fruit will spoil quickly.

So, make sure that you place your passion fruits in a shady spot. You can also cover them with a plastic bag during the day.

Also, make sure that you don’t let your passion fruit sit in water. Otherwise, the fruit will rot.

You can grow your own passion fruit

Yes, you can! All you have to do is find a suitable location. Make sure that there’s lots of shade and good drainage.

Then, dig a hole where you want to put your passion fruit plant. Next, add some compost to the bottom of the hole.

After that, sprinkle some fertilizer into the hole. Finally, insert the seedling into the hole.

Watering your passion fruit plants

While growing passion fruit plants, you shouldn’t overdo it. Instead, keep watering your plants only when they really need it.

This means that you should water your plants at least twice per week. Also, make sure that you use a soaker hose instead of sprinklers.

Fertilizing your passion fruit plants

Fertilizers play a key role in helping your plants grow faster. They provide essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and iron.

Make sure that you fertilize your plants before planting them outdoors. However, you don’t have to fertilize them daily.

Instead, try fertilizing your plants once every 10 days.

Storing your passion fruit

Once you get the harvest, you can either freeze it or dry it. Both methods work well.

Freezing works better than drying. But, storing your passion fruit in the freezer requires more effort.

It’s easier to just dry it. After all, you won’t have to worry about any pests getting into your frozen fruits. However, you should store your dried fruits in an airtight container. Also, make sure to label it properly.

When buying passion fruit online, make sure that you buy organic products. These are the most nutritious ones. In addition, make sure that you look for the ripest fruit. This is the one that has the highest nutritional value.

Passion fruit is an exotic fruit that is native to South America. It has a sweet taste and is known for its high vitamin C content. The fruit is also used in cooking and baking because of its unique flavor.

But passion fruit is expensive. In fact, it costs $10 per pound at the grocery store. If you want to buy it fresh, you’ll pay even more.

So why is it so expensive? Let’s find out!

1) High demand

The first reason why passion fruit is so expensive is due to its popularity. This tropical fruit is very popular among people who like fruits with strong flavors. Because of this, there are many farmers growing passion fruit trees all over the world. And as a result, prices go up.

2) Labor-intensive production process

Another factor contributing to the price increase is labor-intensive production processes. To grow passion fruit plants requires lots of work from both humans and animals. For example, workers must plant seeds into soil, water them regularly, protect them from pests, harvest when they ripen, and then pack them properly before shipping. All these steps require time and effort. As a result, growers have to charge higher prices to cover their expenses.

3) Limited supply

Another important reason behind the high cost of passion fruit is limited availability. There aren’t enough passion fruit trees being grown around the globe. That means we can only get small amounts of the fruit each year. When supplies run low, prices rise.

4) Low yield

Last but not least, another reason why passion fruit is expensive is because of low yields. According to experts, one acre of land produces about 1 ton of passion fruit. But if you live in Florida or California where temperatures are warm, your chances of getting good results will be lower than those living in cooler climates.

Passionfruit vines need lots of care

A lot of care is required when growing passion fruit on vines. These plants are from a tropical region, meaning they need plenty of sun, warmth, water, and a drained soil.

Passionfruit farmers really have to work hard to get a good, delicious crop because they’re on a hypercare list. It isn’t the kind of fruit that you only check on a couple of weeks before harvest.

It can be hit by disease very easily despite all that care. Sometimes it’s not obvious what happened, and entire crops are easily lost.

The quality of the crops can vary greatly. A good vine can provide you with sweet, delicious passion fruit for a year and then give you sub-par fruit the next year. There is a very volatile harvest from year to year with disease.

Some passion fruit plants need bees

If you don’t have access to bee hives, you’ll have to do some research to see which type of insect pollinates your passion fruit tree. Some varieties of passion fruit trees produce better fruit when visited by honeybees. Other types of insects such as bumble bees and wasps may help too.

You might think that having bees visit your passion fruit would mean you’d lose money since they eat the fruit. However, most commercial farms use artificial methods to ensure that the flowers bloom at the right times. The bees just make sure that the blossoms open during peak season. They also fertilize the flower buds with pollen.

You should know that different species of passion fruit trees prefer different kinds of bees. If you want to keep bees visiting your passion fruit, you’ll probably have to experiment until you find out which ones suit your needs best.

Mostly passion fruit needs to be imported

In general, passion fruit grows well throughout South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, Central America, and parts of Oceania. In fact, there are more passion fruit plantations in Brazil alone than anywhere else in the world!

However, many people still import passion fruit from other countries due to its popularity. This has led to an increased demand for this exotic fruit. As a result, growers must travel long distances to source their supply.

This makes passion fruit so much pricier than fruits like strawberries and apples. You could buy 10 pounds of fresh strawberries for $10 while you’d pay over $100 per pound for passion fruit.

It takes 2 years to get the harvest

When you plant passion fruit seeds, you won’t start seeing any signs of growth for up to two years. During these early stages, the seedlings grow slowly. Once they reach around 6 inches tall, they begin producing leaves. At this point, you can expect them to continue growing for several months.

After that, things slow down again. Your new passion fruit plants will stop growing after flowering. After that, they enter dormancy. Dormant means "sleeping" in Latin. When spring comes along, the vines wake up and start producing fruit once again.

Passion fruit doesn’t ripen evenly

As mentioned earlier, passion fruit is one of those fruits that requires careful monitoring. Even if you pick your fruit regularly, you may end up losing half or even three quarters of your crop. That’s why it pays off to invest in a temperature controlled greenhouse where you can store your passion fruit safely through winter.

How to pick the best passion fruit

The easiest way to tell whether your passion fruit is ripe enough to eat is to check how soft it feels. It shouldn’t feel hard or crunchy. Instead, it should give slightly under pressure.

Another thing you need to look out for is color changes. Ripe passion fruit should turn bright red. Green-colored fruit isn’t ready yet.

Once you’ve picked all your passion fruit, put them into containers before storing them away. Don’t leave them on the ground because they’re likely to rot quickly.

If you don’t plan ahead, you’ll soon run out of space when you go shopping for more passion fruit.

You can grow your own passion fruit

There is a way to grow your own passion fruit. They’re not easy to grow, and they might be able to decline unexpectedly.

Even though passion fruit is a wonderful little fruit, its high price can make you think twice about growing it in your garden. Now you know what you’re paying for, if you want to stick with passionfruit.