One of the newest fruit crops in tropical far north Queensland has stood up to the destructive winds and rain of Cyclone Yasi.

A large plantation of achacha trees south-east of Townsville was battered by the category five cyclone right in the middle of harvest.

The emerging industry has been thoroughly tested by Mother Nature in the past few years, also enduring three floods.

But compared to other fruit growers further up the coast, who took a more direct hit from the cyclone, achacha grower Ross Oliveri is feeling pretty lucky.

Only 500 of more than 17,000 trees were toppled and he says 300 of those are probably salvageable.

"I wouldn't have liked to have got what they got up at Tully. I don't think I'd have a tree left," Mr Oliveri said.

The achacha or achachairu is a Bolivian fruit with a hard orange skin and tangy white flesh.

"The Bolivians regard it as part of their national patrimony and they are very sensitive to someone else growing it," Achacha Fruit Group chief executive Bruce Hill said.

"We wanted to do it properly and legally, so we spent six months or so just negotiating with the Bolivian government over conditions to take it out of the country."

It was brought into Australia around a decade ago by a private company.

As a vegetable grower and former mango producer, Mr Oliveri was approached to grow the fruit in Queensland.

"It was a bit daunting. I knew nothing about the trees and I'm sort of learning as I go and I probably made more mistakes than anyone has ever done growing anything," he said.

Risky investment

The company has spent an estimated $10 million converting an old cane farm into what it believes is the biggest achacha plantation in the world.

While it took seven years for the first trees to bear fruit, production is increasing rapidly and yields are expected to reach 2,000 tonnes in five years.

The company concedes it is taking a big risk investing so heavily in a fruit most Australians have never heard of.

"There is a thing out there saying that all these new fruits, 95 per cent don't make it," Mr Oliveri said.

"We've gone with a new fruit, but we've gone into it in a big way and if you go down you go down in a big way."

While the cyclone did not severely damage the plantation, the quality of some fruit has been affected by this season's heavy rains.

The seed is bigger than last year, the flesh is not as sweet and some of the skin is stained.

But interest among retailers is growing, with the two major supermarkets selling it for the first time this year at around $10 per kilogram.

Now the company just has to convince consumers to give it a go.

"In general the only way to get people to buy it is to try it," Mr Hill said.

"If you just watch a person walk into a store, pick up a fruit and smell it [they go] it doesn't smell like anything, I don't know what that is and they put it down and buy a banana."

Alan Carle, who helped establish north Queensland's tropical fruit industry, says the achacha deserves a place in Australian fruit bowls.

"I think Australia needs to embrace more tropical fruits because we have the most guaranteed rainfall in the tropics," he said.

"If we're interested in food security and not relying on third-world countries or other countries for our food supply, I think we need to embrace these new products."

Watch the full report on Landline, ABC 1 Sunday February 13 at midday.