Good News for Purple Passionfruit Lovers

By Jennifer Nichols

ABC Rural

Topic: Agriculture

Tuesday, 21 July 2026, 6:02 am

Tuesday, 21 July 2026, 6:16 am

Benji, Heidi, and Felix Nash are trying new passionfruit.

In short:

New purple passionfruit have been made after many years.

This can help the passionfruit industry.

What's next?

Growers are trying the new passionfruit to see which ones to sell.

Australians who love purple passionfruit will have new fruit to eat.

New purple passionfruit have been made for farmers to try.

Passionfruit growers met to try new passionfruit.

The problem

Three years ago, passionfruit growers were very worried.

The popular passionfruit types were not growing well.

Purple passionfruit are full of juice and taste good.

The vines were not producing many fruit and were getting sick.

Growers and the government paid for a research program.

But in 2023, the program leader left and the work stopped.

Most passionfruit are sold as fresh fruit.

Rescuing the program

A university in Queensland is helping the program.

Growers are trying the new passionfruit to see which ones are good.

The mood is good as growers try the new passionfruit.

They tried nine of the 22 new passionfruit types.

Two new passionfruit types are being tried.

The fruit was judged on taste, look, and smell.

A researcher said the program is needed to help the industry.

He is very happy with the new passionfruit.

A researcher is working with farmers like Keith Paxton.

'Great' progress

The researcher worked on other plant programs that took a long time.

He made a team to work on the passionfruit program.

A grower is happy with the research.

The progress in three years has been very good.

The researcher likes one type of passionfruit called UQP1.

University of Queensland researchers like the UQP1 type.

UQP1 produces a lot of fruit throughout the year.

The fruit is sold to the market for a long time.

Put to the test

A grower needs new passionfruit types to replace old ones.

A grower is trying new passionfruit on his farm.

He did not realize how good the old passionfruit were.

He is trying the new passionfruit in his nursery.

The new passionfruit have good color and taste.

The grower is testing the new passionfruit to see if they are good.

The history of passionfruit

Passionfruit came from the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

They are a good source of fiber, potassium, and vitamin C.

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