Jane and Brian Casey
At the foothills of Mount Buffalo in North East Victoria, Australia, Brian and Jane Casey grow yuzu in deep soil where the yuzu trees experience hot, dry summers and wet winters, significantly different from how the fruit is grown in Japan.
This difference in climate means that the grower has fewer issues with fungi and moulds on fruit, which means spraying is conducted at a minimum.
"We also have a large differential in the day and night-time temperatures. This is thought to improve the flavour of the fruit, and the response from our customers seems to confirm this," said Casey.
When describing the fruit, Casey shared that it was challenging to articulate given how uniquely it lands in the citrus category. However, she said it falls somewhere between grapefruit, lime, and mandarin.
At Casey's yuzu orchard, Mountain Yuzu, the grower minimises inorganic inputs and refrains from using pesticides, committed to continually working to improve the soil by mulching all her prunings, distributing nitrogen-fixing microbes and seaweed emulsions.
Having started Mountain Yuzu with only 20 trees in 2012, with now over 1,800 trees, the expansion and success of the orchard has been quite a journey. Casey explained that they had trouble sourcing grafted trees early on, and the nurseryman who supplied Mountain Yuzu with trees could only supply small numbers at a time.
"It took almost eight years to get them all in the ground."
Growing yuzu comes with its own set of unique challenges, and with minimal literature available, Casey has described the growing experience as one of learning by trial and error. For example, Casey said that they didn't realise how large the trees would actually grow and initially planted all the yuzu trees far too close to each other.
Brian spent two years moving trees to give them more space to grow.
However, after over a decade of growing yuzu, Casey feels they are just starting to get it right.
Demand for yuzu has steadily grown over the past ten years as yuzu has become more well-known.
The main drivers for the demand are the fruit's versatility, delicious flavour, and fragrance. I'm yet to meet anyone who doesn't like it.
"The main drivers for the demand are the fruit's versatility, delicious flavour, and fragrance. I'm yet to meet anyone who doesn't like it."
The grower predicts that demand for the fruit will continue to increase, and Mountain Yuzu's production will increase as trees mature. In the short to medium term, Casey said the couple will continue on their current path, conducting online sales, and supplying providores and gourmet retailers, distillers, and brewers. In the long term, she hopes to expand into export and mainstream sales channels, such as supermarkets. Casey has collaborated with several companies to make yuzu products, such as Yuzu Agrumato (yuzu infused olive oil), Yuzu Bitters (for the cocktail industry), Yuzu Honey, Yuzushu (Japanese style yuzu wine made with shochu), and Yuzu Gin.
She continued that Mountain Yuzu will shortly also be launching Yuzu Salt.
"Whilst fresh yuzu is our main priority, it is great to work with other companies to develop yuzu products that can be enjoyed all year round. We can export these value-added products to New Zealand but unfortunately cannot send fresh fruit."
The growth of the popularity of yuzu is limited by the volume of fresh fruit available, with Casey stating that while there could be more yuzu products on the market, it is better suited to high-end products as a premium and unique fruit variety due to its smaller volume.
Moving into 2024, the grower is primarily concerned with the general economic circumstances the industry is facing, with tight budgets and consumers considering every purchase carefully, making the premium and high-value nature of yuzu a challenge. Another key issue is harvest workers, both the need for more harvest workers available but also because of how yuzu is harvested. Yuzu fruit must be cut off the tree, as it can't be picked, and the tree branches have very large spikes, which can be difficult to negotiate.
"This creates issues for pickers and the fruit quality if the fruit gets spiked whilst being taken off the tree."
This harvesting process for yuzu is incredibly time-consuming and is one of the main reasons the fruit is more expensive than any other citrus.
Read more about the popularity of Yuzu as an ingredient below, starting from page 20.
