The U.S. mainland is unlikely to come to mind at the mention of dragon fruit, litchis or sapodillas, but over recent decades a Florida association has been supporting the cultivation of these tropical crops and more. At www.freshfruitportal.com we spoke to the head of Tropical Fruit Growers of South Florida (TFGSF) to hear about the sector's development, the challenge of cheaper imports and what the future may hold for exotics grown in the Sunshine State.

Formed in the late 1980s at a time when Florida's tropical crops were largely limited to avocados, mangoes and limes, the TFGSF began as a support group for hobbyists looking to fund research and promote consumer interest.

Over time many of the 'minor' crops like litchis and longans grew in size, and in the early 1990s the group managed to increase its exposure at the state legislature level with the establishment of the Tropical Fruit Advisory Council.

Jackfruit is believed to have originated from the southwestern rainforests of India

"This access to state legislature came incredibly handy when Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992," TFGSF president Louise King said.

"The hurricane blew the industry off the face of the earth. It really damaged it horribly, but they were able to go to state legislature and they received funding for four of the next five years."

The funding totaled around US$1 million gave a leg up to research, with much going to the University of Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC).

"They looked at things like different kinds of cultivars, what food they need and what light levels they need," King said, adding funding also went into promotional activities like videos, a website and posters.

"So while crops were recovering from the hurricane, growers worked on research. To the end of the 1990s the internet started to become more prominent, but before then that was it."

The TFGSF now represents around 70-75 growers, although King said there were anywhere from 1,500-1,800 tropical fruit operations in Miami-Dade County - the state's southeasterly region where about 80% of production is based.

A typical size farm is 5-10 acres, and a range of crops are produced including jackfruit, guavas, dragon fruit, mameys, longans, passionfruit, anonas, carambolas and caimitos.

The fruit is sold along the U.S. East Coast through various means.

"Some of the growers go through local packing houses, some have their own contacts they have made over the years, some are small enough in that they can move enough fruit in farmers' markets, or just go out and sell a couple of hundred pounds to restaurants," King said.

Guavas are native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America

"In addition, on our website we put their name and address which can be found when you click on the photo of the fruit you want, and many growers will ship too."

King said all manner of different crops had been tried over the years, but 'if you don't see it growing around here, someone's already tried it and it just didn't work out'.

"We've got about 13 major fruits that grow here commercially, and there's some smaller stuff, maybe an acre here and there of more unusual fruits. A lot of the growers are retired so they do a lot of experimenting and a lot of trying new things and new varieties," she said.

The association head added the industry was 'incredibly fortunate' to have the support of the TREC, which she said had some 150 acres of agricultural research land and was able to disseminate new information quickly to growers via the Miami-Dade County Extension Office.

"We have a great system. We ask researchers ‘can you help us find a way to deal with this?’ or ‘are there any new cultivars with bananas or sapodillas?’ and then they try to get that in their next round of funding," she said.

However, while there may be a general consumer trend in the U.S. of trying new and exotic produce items, King said competition from other countries had become 'severe' over the years and prices were suffering.

"Take litchis for instance, in the 1990s none were coming in from any other countries, then South East Asia started," she said.

"Then Mexico figured out how to grow litchis, and they’re growing them much cheaper than we can do it because their labor costs are far less than ours, so prices that farmers get now are much much less than they used to be.

Litchis are from the soapberry family and native to China

"It used to be you could make a decent living out of it, but competition has really hurt the industry here, and I know it's is just going to get greater and greater."

As well as competition threatening the industry's future, King also said new diseases and pests were a concern.

"It's like the citrus industry with the greening and leafminer. With these open borders now and more of a global market, diseases freely move from one place to another.

"It might get to the point where we're no longer profitable, but farmers are resourceful people, so hopefully they will continue to look for new crops and new and efficient ways to grow them so it's cheaper.

"One thing about Florida crops is that we’ve got everybody beat on quality. The litchis from Florida are far superior than what’s coming in from China and South East Asia. For one, those have to go through 14 days at 1°C (34°F), while we can get it on a shelf in New York a couple of days after harvest."

Also encouragingly, the Florida tropical fruit industry has occasionally been the recipient of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, and a new grant could be awarded in the coming days.

"We've had three of them so far. We had a huge promotional program on the East Coast back in the 1990s and early 2000s," King said.

"With another one we taught all of our farmers about the recent Food Safety Modernization Act, to show them how to write a food safety plan.

"We're also waiting to hear by end of week whether we've got another grant to update our website and make an identical site in Spanish so that we can target more Spanish-speaking people."

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