Feijoa undergound market grows

Feijoas are a guava-like fruit that grow in autumn in New Zealand. Photo / File

You either love them, or you hate them, but if you love them they shouldn't be too hard to come by.

Feijoas have been in season since March and while you can fork out $6.50 per kg at the supermarket for the autumnal fruit, people are better to search online marketplaces if they don't grow in your backyard.

People with feijoa trees producing a lot of fruit are selling them for $1 or $2 per kg on TradeMe and Facebook neighbourhood marketplaces.

Ryan Bishop noticed the feijoa tree in his Napier backyard was producing particularly big fruit and thought he could list them for sale on TradeMe.

"Really nice big feijoas pick up Napier $1 per kg... txt me how many kgs you would like thanks," says his listing on TradeMe.

Feijoa listed for sale on TradeMe at $2 per kilo. Photo / TradeMe

"I've only sold a couple of bundles so far, but I've got another person coming round after work tonight to pick some up and I even had enquiries to send them to Wellington."

Bishop said he thought this year's season had been good for the fruit.

"They're huge this year and they keep dropping and dropping. I'm almost going to have to start giving them away."

Another listing for the fruit on TradeMe said: "Fresh big feijoas ready to be picked up today, double the size and a small amount compared to what your paying ludicrous amounts for at the supermarkets."

On Facebook, people all over New Zealand have been sharing photos of their feijoa hauls, and advertising selling the fruit for prices as low as $1 per kg to locals.

Alyssa Kate shared a photo of a wheelbarrow full of large feijoas and said she had collected a whopping 86kg of the fruit in Palmerston North.

"So we have 43 bags of 2kg feijoas and about 28 pre-sold," she wrote. In a day her entire haul had been bought.

In Palmerston North Bargains, Julie Pullar is advertising "old fashioned tasting feijoas" that have fallen from their tree.

The feijoa boom has come despite early season fears about the potential impact of the guava moth pest - that turns feijoas brown. This moth was expected to hit crops between Northland and Waikato.