Could pawpaw, the US-native fruit, become the new kiwi or mango?

About five years ago, Matt Feyerabend, co-owner of an Arkansas ice-cream business, wanted to explore new flavors and use more native fruits, so while delivering a batch of product to a restaurant in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, he asked if anyone knew a grower of pawpaws, a tree fruit native to the United States with a flavor described as a mix between a mango and a banana.

A server said her father, a veterinarian, had trees on his property. Feyerabend and his wife, Meghan, now annually purchase hundreds of pounds of the fruit from the vet and other growers and sell pawpaw ice-cream and other treats containing the fruit and its seeds.

They are part of a growing industry. In recent years, people have started pawpaw festivals around the country, and in 2022, the US Department of Agriculture included the fruit in its agricultural census for the first time and reported that the country had almost 1,500 farms containing 800 acres of the fruit.

Growers are trying to meet the increased demand but faced challenges this year because some trees flowered earlier than normal and were then hit by a late-season frost that destroyed some of the crop.

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Scientists said the unusual weather was related to the climate crisis and say that such events could create problems for growers, just as the industry in the US is taking off.

Still, people in the industry remain optimistic about pawpaw’s potential because it is native to the United States and there are many varieties around the country. As such, the crop could be able to better adapt to the effects of the climate crisis than fruits like apples and peaches.

“Since there are native stands of [pawpaws] all over the country, we have so much variation and lots of stuff with great fruit quality,” said Adam D’Angelo, director of research at Project Pawpaw, a company that aims to develop new varieties of the fruit. “We are able to draw upon that to make sure that we still have crops that can perform in varying conditions.”

The pawpaw is the largest edible fruit native to the United States, and the crop typically ripens in the fall. It has a shelf life of just two to three days, which makes selling it harder.

Universities have invested in research programs to improve propagation of the plant.

Pawpaw enthusiasts have also launched festivals that have increased awareness of the fruit.

D’Angelo thinks the fruit can help small farmers and the environment.

“This tropical-tasting, delicious fruit that grows right here is, in some ways, displacing tropical fruit that is being shipped across the world”, which raises greater environmental and ethical concerns than something grown locally, said D’Angelo, who grew up in a family with a garden center and nursery in northern New Jersey.

Feyerabend was unsure how to introduce a pawpaw flavor to Pure Joy Ice Cream customers not familiar with its taste, so he made a sorbet in which he used lime juice to “accentuate the tropical notes in the pawpaw fruit”, he said.

Customers liked it.

“They weren’t even super interested in what the pawpaw was. It wasn’t for any interest in tropical fruit or native fruit. They were legitimately just enjoying the flavor of it,” said Feyerabend, who went to one pawpaw festival in 2023 and plans to sell at four this year.

But one of his suppliers recently had a webworm infestation damage his crop. The fruit was still usable, Feyerabend said. The farmer released wasps – rather than a pesticide spray – to attack the worms.

“It’s a very valuable fruit” and “requires a fraction of the inputs of a traditional fruit crop and far less spraying”, D’Angelo said.

Still, farmers in Ohio and Kentucky reported that the early flowering this year created a bitter taste.

Kentucky State University, which has a pawpaw research program, lost 40% of its crop to unusual weather, said Kirk Pomper, a horticulture professor at the school. Still, he thinks that pawpaw farmers can adjust to new weather patterns by planting orchards on north-facing hillsides to slow the flowering and investing in new irrigation methods to contend with more frequent draughts, he said.

“It’s just going to make it a little more challenging,” said Pomper, who has worked on the fruit for two decades.

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Pomper remains optimistic about the fruit’s potential because people have become more adventurous in what they eat, he said. He envisions pawpaws following a trajectory similar to fruits like the kiwi and mango, which became more popular in the United States in recent decades.

“The pawpaw fits right in there with that tropical-like flavor, even though it’s grown in temperate areas,” Pomper said.

People in the industry also expect entrepreneurs to find more uses for the pawpaw pulp. In addition to making ice-cream with it, Feyerabend delivered pawpaws to a local brewer who planned to make a beer with the fruit.

Still even if the pawpaw market continues to grow, D’Angelo does not think people should dedicate an entire farm to the fruit.

“Diversification is essential. If you have a bad year for pawpaws, you might have a great year for chestnuts, right?” D’Angelo said. “Spreading out that risk is what is going to help foster resilience in our food system and is going to help keep small farms innovating and keep them viable.”