Anyway, there is a backyard industry selling the so called “GUYATIS” or Biriba fruit in Laguna in the part of the highway in Calamba. They sell this along with Rambutan, Durian, Lanzones because they have the same harvest season.

Anyway, if you are interested in seedlings of “GUYATIS”, they are selling planting materials in the fruit nursery of Manila Seedling Bank in EDSA.

Anyway, the first cultivated Atemoya variety introduced in the Philippines is “African Pride” it was introduced by Institute of Plant Breeding of UP LOS BANOS. But the problem with this variety was not promoted and mass propagated by the institution that last time I heard the lone tree died because of non-maintenance. “African Pride” is also grown in Australia, Israel, Florida, Brazil, Thailand, Taiwan, South Africa etc. One good thing about this variety that it is self pollinating so no need to hand pollinate like Cherimoya or other Atemoya varieties like Pinks Mammmoth and Hillary White of Australia and it is more adopted to the tropical climate.

Custard Apple is only like a general term for Atemoya in Australia. It is there way of branding Atemoya in Australia for marketing purposes. “Kung baga mas maganda pakinggan and custard apple kaysa sa Atemoya.” The hard part of using Custrad apple is that in reality this is a different fruit from Atemoya. In the Philippines, Custard Apple is what we call “Anunas” (Annona Reticulata). Australia knows this kaya they cannot patent the name for there own use.

Atemoya is now a potential export crop in the Philippines and countries like Australia, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil, Israel, Egypt are making money in exporting Atemoya in other countries. Thats why fruit growers in the Philippines have started planting Atemoya in some part of the countries and they have introduced imported varieties. In the near future I think our country will benefit from this crop as another fruit export crop once promoted well even in small quantities. The only hard thing about Atemoya is the cultural management of tree, medyo mahirap palakihin and pabungahin and Atemoya. Kung baga mabusisi and pag-alaga kaya some growers shy away from this fruit tree as a commercial crop.

Also, just want to inform you, that in the near future we might also produce Cherimoya in highland tropics of Baguio, Cordillera, and Mt. Province. We introduced imported cherimoya seeds last year and from what I heard they are doing well, some old trees had been flowering and we told them to hand pollinate them for fruit development. I hope the highland tropics could benefit from this besides citrus, strawberries and vegetables.