RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Gaza - 30 October 2021. Palestinian farmer Ramadan Ishtawy, 56, picks custard-apple, or Sugar-apple (Annona squamosa) at his farm during harvest season in Gaza city.

0.1 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Ramadan Ishtawy.

STORYLINE:

Annona squamosa is the most widely grown Annona spp., and this small tropical tree originated in the New World tropics, probably in the Caribbean region. This plant is also known as sugar apple or sweetsop and has many other regional names such as custard apple (India), anon (Portuguese), and noi-na (Thailand).

Sugar apple is a favorite fruit in Cuba and is also common in West Indies.

Sweetsop tree is smaller than the cherimoya and is semideciduous in growth habit. It grows 3–8 m in height with a short trunk and irregularly spreading branches. Owing to small fruit size, poor shelf life, and fruit cracking at maturity, this fruit has not shown much potential for large-scale commercial cultivation.

Sweetsop is a round, heart-shaped, ovate, or conical fruit weighing about 120–330 g. Fruit are greenish yellow with many outer round protuberances and covered with a white powdery bloom.

The flesh is white with numerous black seeds and has a pleasant sweet–sour flavor. Fruit has high caloric value and a high sugar content of 58% (dry mass).


Footage by/APAwire