GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — After eight years of experimenting, Gazan farmer Massoud al-Zane last month succeeded in growing feijoa, an egg-shaped fruit with a cream-colored flesh and a jelly-like center, for the first time in Palestine.

During Al-Monitor’s visit to the nursery in Ezbet Abed Rabbo neighborhood of Jabaliya town, north of Gaza City, Zane was busy talking to some 60 university students who came from different agriculture faculties to listen to the success story of growing this fruit for the first time in the Gaza Strip. Zane, 52, said the feijoa is the fruit of the Acca sellowiana, a small tree commonly found in Brazil and northern Argentina that produces guava-shaped green fruit. The production cycle of feijoa takes a whole year, Zane said. 

Zane said he obtained feijoa seeds from the Ministry of Agriculture in 2009, when they were distributed to some farmers. The farmers were to experiment with the seeds in various Gaza locations in different types of soil and at varying levels of water and soil salinity. Planting also depended on the availability of manure and chloride, which help the plant grow.

Zane, who followed in his father's footsteps as a farmer, said the warm weather in Gaza suits the growth of the tree, as it can endure high temperatures, cold spells and high water salinity. The tree is seldom infected with pests, so farmers do not have to use pesticides and can earn a higher profit as a result.