By Sophie Johnson, ABC News
Red wax-tipped bananas have gone viral on social media. Photo: ABC Rural: Sophie Johnson
Red-tipped bananas are not new to Australian consumers, but have gone viral on social media this month after an inquisitive post from two bewildered British backpackers.
The video from travellers Mel Chekaoui and Phil Colia has been seen more than 11 million times on Instagram, with eager consumers commenting that they too were hungry to learn the reason for the red wax tip.
"My Dad told me it meant they were strawberry flavoured and I believed him until I was 16 years old. Nice to finally learn the real reason in the comments." "Legit my favourite bananas, and I don't even know why." "Baby-bel bananas." "Christian Louboutin version of bananas."
Pioneered by Innisfail farmers Dianne and Frank Sciaccia in Far North Queensland, the red wax tip indicates bananas that have been grown using their Ecoganic farming method.
"Stores actually have a sign that says 'uniquely Ecoganic', but I mean [social media] is just the way the young ones communicate today," Ms Sciaccia said.
"[When I saw the video] I just laughed."
Sciaccia said the accredited farming system used natural ecosystems to grow the crop and promote soil health, minimising other inputs such as chemical fertilisers and insecticides.
It is different to organic farming because not all products used are free of inputs.
While the red tips are more widely known to appear on bananas, producers of other crops have also started to adopt the farming method.
"We've had a lot of interest from different industries, so we've been working with avocadoes, apples and pears in Victoria, and almond growers in South Australia for the past couple of years," Sciaccia said.
"We're just putting some focus back into papaya, which we did start a few years ago, but due to crop loss, we sort of put that on hold at the time."
Darveniza is going to grow red-tipped pawpaws next year. Photo: ABC Rural: Sophie Johnson
Pawpaw potential
There are eight certified growers nationally, including William Darveniza.
His farm is up the road from the Sciaccia's, about 260km north of Townsville, and his range of crops includes the red-tipped bananas.
This is his first year formally producing the fruit, after he realised he had already been using the farming method.
He hopes to add the red tip to other fruits on the farm, including paw paws.
"A lot of those mycorrhizal fungi and the bacteria that they evolved alongside in the rainforest are sort of taken out of the equation in the conventional farming system that we have," Darveniza said.
"I'd like to sort of try and reintroduce that a little bit and help protect the crop from these weather situations and these insect pressures using that system."
He hoped a wider range of red-tipped fruit would be on supermarket shelves by mid-next year.
"There has already been a fair bit of interest in the product, so we're looking forward to moving forward with it," he said.
Red-tipped exports
Across all growers, about 80 tonnes of red-tipped bananas are produced a week, and they are not only turning heads in Australia.
Sciaccia said international interest had grown since they first sent trial volumes of bananas with the waxy, red tips to Japan about two years ago.
"We've been working with one of the major supermarkets over there and putting together a business plan with them," she said.
"They've done all of their testing on the product, and the texture, taste, what they call sensory attributes, sit above any other product that they import from around the world."
She was hopeful of sending commercial volumes to Japan in the future.
"I don't see the export as being a major part of our business, but it certainly has the potential to be as equal to our domestic market quite easily," Sciaccia said.
- ABC News