Our friend Ben Rockefeller has sent us this fascinating report on the growing of cherimoya in Spain. Cherimoya (Annona cherimola) is probably the tastiest of all table fruits in the (large tropical) genus Annona, with impeccable white flesh and a unique flavour that balances a floral fragrance with sweetness and pleasant acidity. A native crop of Andean South America with some commercial production in Peru and Chile, cherimoya has potential for wider use. There is much unexploited variation of fruit characters in native seedling populations (in particular size, smoothness, seed/flesh ratio, flavour and sweetness), but it seems it has only been the chance introduction of germplasm of limited variability that has given rise to the very substantial cherimoya area in Southern Spain now covering 3000 ha. Alas, as Ben’s report shows, the cherimoya industry in Spain is in decline, owing to stagnant farm-gate product prices and rising costs for agricultural inputs and farmland in one of Europe’s sunniest regions.