History

The tamarillo was first introduced to New Zealand from Asia in the late 1800s. Only yellow and purple fruited strains were produced from the original introductions, but the red type was developed by an Auckland nursery during the 1920s from seed sourced from South America. Other red strains, developed independently, appeared soon afterwards. Since then, continued reselection of these original red strains by growers has led to the large highquality varieties that are available today.