Potential for growth: Lam Meng Yin (left) and her husband Yap Yee Teng have been growing abiu seedlings in their nursery at Kampung Broga in Semenyih, Selangor for the past 10 years. - GRACE CHEN/The Star
HAILED as a non-local fruit with great potential in Malaysia, the abiu (Pouteria caimito) , which is of South American origin, is making waves among local farmers.
Many believe abiu, with its sweet jelly-like flesh which is said to taste like a combination of banana and pineapple, is sure to win the hearts of locals.
In February, Selangor infrastructure and agriculture committee chairman Datuk Izham Hashim and state local government and tourism committee chairman Datuk Ng Suee Lim introduced the fruit to attendees and members of the media during lunch at the state assembly sitting.
They also appeared in a TikTok video, with Ng saying it was “really delicious” and similar in taste to mangosteen.
Netizens who commented on Ng’s post urged the state executive councillors to promote the planting of the fruit here.
Lam holding a cut abiu fruit at her nursery in Kampung Broga. The fruit is said to taste like a combination of banana and pineapple.
Taking it further
Mohd Kamil Sapuan, the producer of the batch of abiu that Izham had brought in, is growing them on his 1.2ha farm at Lembah Peladang Agropark (LPA) in Sungai Buloh, Selangor.
Mohd Kamil is one of the agropreneurs who is looking to tap into the fruit’s potential as a new cash crop.
“I started planting abiu two and a half years ago, in between my musang king durian trees,” said the former landscape contractor.
He added that he had heard about the fruit from other growers and upon getting a taste of it, decided to grow it on his farm.
At that time, LPA, which is under the purview of the Kuala Selangor Farmers’ Organisation, was trying to promote the agro- tourism concept where visitors would get to sample fruits that were not commonly found in the market, at its farms.
Mohd Kamil is growing abiu trees between durian trees at Lembah Peladang Agropark in Sungai Buloh.
Mohd Kamil, who was eager to tap into this market, said he saw the abiu as a novelty attraction to generate extra income for his farming venture.
To start, he purchased 200 seedlings from a nursery in Mantin, Negri Sembilan.
Currently as his trees are “still learning how to fruit,” it will take some time before he can think of scaling up production.
“So far within these two and a half years, I have only sold about 50kg to a fruit seller in October 2024 at RM12 per kg,” he said.
He said it would take 120 days for a fruit the size of a ping-pong ball to reach 400g, or slightly larger than a grapefruit.
Mohd Kamil is hopeful that he will be able to reap the rewards of his hard work soon from the many flowers seen on his abiu trees.
To nurture and care for the trees, Mohd Kamil is using organic fertiliser, effective microbes and foliar spray.
To keep the pests at bay, he uses an organic repellant of garlic and neem oil.
He has also set up fruit fly traps, considered by growers as the abiu’s arch enemy, some 100m away from the growing area.
Gaining popularity
A nursery located near Kampung Broga in Semenyih has become popular among abiu growers.
Operated by Lam Meng Yin and her husband Yap Yee Teng, they have been growing abiu seedlings for the past 10 years.
“We have sold our seedlings to growers from Johor, Pahang as well as Sabah and Sarawak.
“In Selangor, I have growers coming from Sepang and Sungai Pelek,” said Lam.
Coincidentally, the abiu trees in Mohd Kamil’s farm are from the nursery run by the couple.
It all started when Yap got a cutting from his relative who was also in the nursery business in Taiwan.
To produce the seedlings, they used the grafting method, where cuttings from different plants are joined together so they will merge and grow as one.
Seedlings produced this way are also known to fruit faster than those grown from seeds.
It took the couple three years of research and development to produce their current crop of seedlings that come from conjoined cuttings selected from the best plants.
Yap said there were no shortcuts in ensuring the optimum growth of fruit trees.
Yap showing how he wraps each abiu fruit to protect it from fruit flies and other pests at his nursery near Kampung Broga.
“They will require care and fertilising. Where abiu is concerned, the fruit must be wrapped to prevent it from being stung by fruit flies or other marauding pests,” he said.
Lam added that she had once received complaints from a customer about her seedlings not being able to bear fruit.
“So, I asked the grower to send me a photo of the problem tree. It turned out that the tree was surrounded by weeds, which can negatively impact a tree’s ability to fruit by competing for resources like water and nutrients,” she said.
The Yaps said their proudest moment was when harvesting a fruit weighing 1.2kg in 2022.
Their feat was posted on the nursery’s social media page with the couple’s daughter holding the fruit.
Some drawbacks
Abiu plants are not entirely new to local growers, said Lawrence Tan, who runs a nursery specialising in fruit trees like mango, durian and lime in Sungai Buloh.
Lawrence, who is the second generation to run the family business, recalled his late mother Tan Leong Yi, having planted it over 20 years ago.
He gives several reasons to explain why abiu has earned the “princess” fruit nickname and why it has remained largely confined to nursery or hobby grower circles in the past.
Lawrence, seen at his Sungai Buloh nursery, says there are certain limitations to commercialising the fruit.
“It was not common to find this fruit in the market due to its short shelf life, which is more or less one week in cool storage.
“In comparison, an orange can last up to a month under the same conditions.
“The fruit also has a fragile nature as it bruises easily.
“Once it is bruised, it can degrade quickly.
“That means the farmer will have to pack the fruit in containers that can absorb impact.
“To ensure they don’t turn soft in our hot weather, they should ideally be delivered in cold trucks.
“All these measures translate to extra costs for the grower, distributor, seller and eventually, the buyer,” said Lawrence.
However, he is seeing rising interest in abiu among his customers.
From 2024 to March this year, out of the 150 abiu seedlings he has cultivated, only 30 are left.
At Lawrence’s nursery, the price for a 0.6m-high abiu seedling that has been cultivated from seed is RM25. A grafted seedling is RM120.
As for the price of the fruit itself, Kamal Kamaruddin, the manager of a fruit shop in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, said they were charging RM25 per kg.
“We were introduced to abiu by our supplier about two years ago.
“We sold the fruit between September and November last year,” said Kamal.
Describing supply as limited to only once or twice per month with no more than 30kg per delivery, Kamal said the shop had yet to see new deliveries for 2025.
However when abiu hit its shelves last year, the fruits weighing about 400g each were sold out within two days.
