Achacha on the ‘Cutting Board’

THE achacha is a fragrant little orange-peeled Bolivian fruit, grown in Queensland, with a tangy, juicy-fleshed interior somewhere between a mangosteen, to which they’re related (though with less sugar), and a lychee.

An Aussie group, prompted by Bolivian friend Hugo Aguilar, gathered some investors, negotiated with the Bolivian government to export the seeds, bought a former sugarcane plantation in Burdekin and began growing achacha trees. Still Australia’s only commercial grower, Achacha Fruit Group has 16,000 trees on 110ha; they’ve survived cyclone, flood and fruit bats, have dispensed with all chemicals and are converting to biodynamic.