Seeka Orchards: The sweetest fruit of all

This relatively new fruit to Australia’s horticulture industry may be small, but it’s packing a very sweet punch.

For thousands of years, the jujube fruit has delighted the palates of people across China.

And though it may be a relatively new crop in the Australian horticulture landscape, the Aussie appetite for the highly-sweet fruit is growing.

Seeka Orchards at Mundoona in Victoria is one of the country’s largest growers of the unique fruit. General manager Jonathan Van Popering said all of the orchard’s production is sold into domestic markets, with the aim of looking at export opportunities in the coming years.

Seeka Orchards Jonathan Van Popering with fresh and dried Jujubes. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The final weeks of harvest are wrapping up with the business on track to harvest about 25 tonnes of fruit for the season, with about 16ha or fiver per cent of the orchard’s total production planted.

“The bulk of our orchards are very young, we’re only in our third year of production,” Mr Van Popering said.

“And that includes our trial blocks planted in 2021. The trees are young, but come into production quite quickly. We planted the first couple of blocks with two different varieties, and the next year we had fruit.”

Seeka Orchards Jonathan Van Popering with the Jujubes. Picture: Zoe Phillips

A 2023 RuralBank report found about 900 tonnes of the fruit was grown in Australia in 2021, and was forecast to climb to 1600 tonnes by the year 2026.

The fruit has a unique taste, Mr Van Popering said, with an incredibly high sugar content.

And while there are some claims that the fruit is a superfruit, Seeka Orchards is awaiting results from nutritional testing.

“It’s really unique, it’s hard to explain. It has a light foamy texture, it’s crispy not juicy, and as you bite it it cracks away in your mouth,” Mr Van Popering said.

“The fruit ranges up to 33 per cent sugar. Whereas a plum gets harvested between 18 to 20 per cent.”