The rise of the fruit that tastes like custard

It's where Navnath Malhari Kaspate has been farming the fruit for decades.

He travelled across India collecting seeds and brought them back to his farm where he cross-pollinated them.

"No one had really paid attention to custard apple or done research, so I decided to keep working on it. It takes 12 to 15 years to develop a new variety. This is not quick work - it's decades of experimentation," he says.

His work resulted in the NMK-01 (named after his initials) variety, known for being high yielding. It went on sale in 2014.

"We now grow custard apple on nearly 50 acres, with yields of about 10 tonnes per acre. This improved variety which does not get spoiled has created opportunity for exports. We started exporting to Gulf countries, and even sent it to Europe, something that hadn't been done before at this scale," he says.

Kaspate's development work continues, he's currently working on a variety with an improved appearance and greater resistance to disease.

Manoj Kumar Barai exports the NMK-01 variety to the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Europe.

"For exports we prefer the NMK-01 variety because it has better shelf life, thicker skin, more pulp, and a sweeter taste compared to others," he says.

Nevertheless, exporting such a delicate fruit requires an intricate process.

"We have to plan everything precisely - harvesting time, transport to pack houses, airport transfer, flights, customs clearance - every hour matters."

Temperature control is critical.

"Custard apple is highly sensitive to heat, and even short exposure can reduce its shelf life," he says.

Road journeys are often done overnight to avoid the worst of the heat.

"In regions like Maharashtra, temperatures can go up to 40 degrees, and even during transit it can reach 30–35 degrees, which is not ideal for this fruit."

The fruit is pre-cooled for five hours before being packed and transported in refrigerated vans and then stored in cold rooms before being air freighted.

Special corrugated boxes have been developed to protect the fruit and help keep them cool.

More fruit is being exported as pulp or in a powder form, which is a "revolution" for the export industry says Barai.

Pulp is used by overseas ice cream makers, bakeries and at "pulp-shot" cafes.

It's still not simple, as the pulp has to be stored and transported at -18C.

But it's still cheaper than air freight and allows large volumes to be transported over weeks without any fruit going to waste.

Back in Kolar, Shivareddy wants to expand his business by selling pulp as well as whole apples.

He plans to set up a pulp processing unit that would use the portion of his crop that he can't sell.

But extracting the pulp and chilling it to -20C involves significant investment in equipment which, he says, will involve a change in mindset for many farmers.

"Custard apple sits in a strange gap. Demand is rising, but the farming hasn't gone high-tech as the crop is naturally hardy. It grows in poor soil, needs very little water, and survives on rainfall. Farmers don't need expensive irrigation, sensors, or controlled environments so tech adoption stays low," he says.