Harvested in November and preserved in a freezer, the colossal berry, measuring nearly 4cm wide and weighing 20.4g—roughly ten times the size of an average blueberry—claimed the title previously held by a 16.2g berry from Western Australia. This remarkable specimen hails from a new variety developed by the Costa Group, responding to consumer preferences for larger berries.
According to Brad Hocking, the Eterna breed consistently produces enormous fruit, with recent growing conditions in their Corindi farm in northern New South Wales yielding an exceptionally bountiful crop. Although his team had noticed promising berries on the trees, they were stunned and elated when they finally weighed them.
Lead horticulturist Brad Hocking shared with the BBC, “It wasn’t until we put them on the scale that we realized what we found. The record-breaking fruit was obviously particularly large, but we would have picked 20 or more fruit on that morning that would have broken the previous world record.”
After 12 weeks, the berry was officially certified by Guinness World Records as the heaviest ever documented.
As for its taste, Mr. Hocking laughs, admitting he doesn’t know. Despite the temptation, his team chose to spare the record-breaking berry from immediate consumption and instead enjoyed its smaller counterparts.
“We get a second breakfast every day… we don’t have to eat this one,” he quipped.
Now, the growers are contemplating what to do with the prized berry. “There’s been a few ideas, maybe like a resin cast and mounting it on the wall or something,” Hocking mused.
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