White strawberry dream finally bears fruit

Different hues: Wong showing off the white and red strawberries he grows at his farm in Cameron Highlands.

CAMERON HIGHLANDS: It’s “berry good” for grower Damon Wong who has managed to cultivate a white variant of strawberry at his farm here.

The 28-year-old, who quit his engineering job to take over his family’s farm business, said it took him more than a year to see his plants bear fruit.

“I’ve only just managed to successfully cultivate these. It takes between eight and nine months from the planting of the seed to the fruit-bearing process,” he said in an interview here.

First cultivated in 2009, white strawberries, though a rarity in Malaysia, are popular and even considered a luxury product in Japan, said Wong.

“The white variant has a stronger fragrance and is as sweet as the red one. Its flesh is also white and it smells and tastes like a peach.

“People often think that the fruit is unripe due to its colour but that’s just how it is. There are some which are pink,” he said.

Many strawberry growers in Cameron Highlands, said Wong, wanted to cultivate the variant but did not know how to do it.

“Many were unsuccessful. The fascination then died along the way as it was a lot of hard work.

“The plant needs constant care and controlled exposure to sunlight. Too much sunlight and it will turn red (but) too little and it will not be sweet.

“The yield for white strawberries is low due to the difficulty of its management and growth,” he said, adding that the fruit should not be confused with the pineberry.

Wong said that while the pineberry was smaller and tasted like pineapple, the white strawberry was about the same size as the red variant.

“In Japan, a single fruit can cost about ¥1,000 (RM36.50).

“I am still deciding on how to sell them. I’ll probably package them together with the red and pink variants.”