The development of a new plum variety is another step toward using fruit to fight obesity.

The Queensland Government has spent nearly 10 years developing a plum variety that is high in the inflammation fighting pigment, anthocyanin.

The new variety known as Queen Garnet is a large plum with very dark red flesh, almost black skin and suited to mid to late-season growing.

Biomedical Science Professor at the University of Southern Queensland Lindsay Brown has studied the effect of anthocyanin on health in rats.

"We fed rats a high carbohydrate, high fat diet and not surprisingly they show the same effects as humans; they're obese, they're hypertensive, they have sugar problems.

"When we give the purple plum juice to those rats we can reverse all of those changes almost back to normal in about eight weeks."

The plum is being grown in southern Queensland's traprock region on land more associated with fine wool production than horticulture.

Bim Goodrich, of Warroo Station, Inglewood, says he chose to diversify into horticulture to spread his risk.

"We wanted to get into a business that wasn't a commodity as such.

"In other words we didn't want to be trading something on the general market and being prone to all the issues you have with commodities versus specialised products.

"This one has health benefits, a high value per mega litre of water, the system is mechanised and it's got an existing market."

Some fruit will be sold on the shelf but most of the fruit produced will be used for juices.

"I think it's probably true to say that this is an anthocyanin factory, rather than a fruit farm."