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By Aygul Salmanova

Feijoa with amazingly fragrant and beautifully green color is one of the unusual fruit cultivating in Azerbaijan.

Despite its exotic name, feijoa, also known as pineapple guava, is quite a familiar product for us, with juicy berries from light green to dark emerald color. They taste like berry fruit mix: you can distinguish notes of strawberry, banana and even pineapple.

The country can be considered as the second homeland of feijoa after South America. Since 1928, when the fruit, rich with vitamin C was first brought to Azerbaijan, it began to spread in the southern regions mainly in Masalli and Lankaran.

Feijoa can be considered as a plant of industrial importance in the Lankaran-Astara zone and its production is a rapidly developing agricultural field. It is the main source of income for the community of the region. It is believed that the best feijoa gardens are situated in the territory of Syrguk and Turkekaran villages of Lankaran.

Those who want to defeat the diseases and boost health before the winter should visit the region on one of these days while the weather is sunny. Here, you can pick the fruits from the tree and eat them by cutting the fruit in half and scooping out the flesh with a small spoon.

You can also drink the feijoa compote, which tastes neither sweet nor sour and makes it possible to drink liters of it.

Cultivating the plant does not require much effort. It is even possible to grow it on a land that is not suitable for tea, lemon, orange juice. The tree is very thermophilic and the maximum frost can withstand up to -10 °C.

The fruit is mainly grown in the southern regions of Azerbaijan with subtropical climate. However, regions with non-subtropical climate such as Ganja and Goychay are also among the regions cultivating feijoa.

Feijoa is among the products that can be successfully exported abroad. In recent years, the demand for this fruit has significantly increased in Russia, CIS and the European countries. In 2010, Azerbaijan exported 740 tons of feijoa to the Russian and Ukrainian markets.

The price of feijoa goes up in this period of time. There are some reasons behind it. Feijoa is a good source of vitamin-C antioxidant that works well against viral illness through immune-boosting means, 100 g of fresh fruit provides 32.9 mg of this vitamin, which is about half of the daily norm.

This aromatic fruit has almost all vitamins necessary for the human body. The mineral composition of feijoa is also very rich; potassium, magnesium, phosphorus iron zinc making the plant a piggy bank essential for body substances. The most interesting fact about feijoa is the high content of iodine in fruits.

The fruit is also beneficial for the digestive system. Pulp rich in pectin has a mild laxative effect. In the case of stomach problems, a half-glass of the decoction made by dried and chopped peel of the fruit before eating may have a positive effect.

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