Annona Species Monograph.pdf - Crops for the Future

Chapter 4. Major and Minor Production Areas
of cherimoya and sugar apple in that country in 1991 was 50 ha, with yield of
about 170 MT of fruit (Mansour, 1997).
There are no data on cultivated areas and production of custard apple and
wild soursop. Custard apple is grown in small backyard orchards or harvested
from the wild in most of its North, Central and South American distribution,
while the wild soursop is found scattered as wild or dooryard plants in many
African countries. Custard apple has been widely spread around the tropics
and has become a prized backyard plant in many parts of Africa.
In India, sugar apple is cultivated in rain-fed orchards mainly in Maharashtra,
Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Assam and Orissa (Singh, 1992) and in the 1980s the area was estimated to
be 44,100 ha (Pareek, 1985). Few of the plantings are commercial except for
areas of Gujarat. Most fruits come to market from semi-wild forests of the
Deccan Plateau where sugar apple has gone wild.
4.3. Demand
(see also section 12.2)
There has been little market research on international fruit markets for
annonas. The experience with cherimoya and the sale of improved types
(swollen skin, round shape, good flavour, juiciness, low seed content,
resistant to bruising and adequate packing: NRC, 1989) shows small but
steady increase in demand in Chile, Argentina, Portugal, Spain, the USA, the
UK, France and Japan.
27