At Sööma restaurant in south-west Western Australia, diners used to sip on yuzu cocktails made from pricey, imported Japanese juice.

At least they did until restaurant owner Deborah Sillaots discovered the shop next door belonged to farmers with 600 of their own yuzu trees.

"It's quite exquisite in flavour. It's citrusy but it has a blend of mandarin, grapefruit, lemon," Ms Sillaots said.

"It makes a beautiful cocktail ,and then we started using it as a dressing on some of our Japanese-style dishes."

Ms Sillaots was paying up to $100 for 750ml bottles of imported yuzu juice before her neighbours mentioned they were growing it on their farm east of Manjimup, a town with a thriving horticultural industry known for its apples and avocados.

'An ugly sort of lemon'

This winter, Paul Edwards harvested his first crop of yuzu after planting 600 trees between 2020 and 2021.

"It looks like an ugly sort of lemon," he said.

"But it peels and separates like a mandarin."

He got the idea to plant yuzu after his son learned about the fruit at agricultural school.

In addition to his commercial vegetable and sheep farm, he now plans to expand the yuzu orchard to sell the fruit.

That would make him one of only a handful of commercial yuzu growers in Australia.

"We're working on getting it out there," Mr Edwards said.

"Cosmetic-wise it could go into soaps and shampoos. It's quite well known for that in Japan."

Ms Sillaots prized the "stronger, more savoury" citrus flavour of the yuzu and was willing to continue paying $100 per bottle to use it in her cocktails.

But now with a farmer on her doorstep, she is planning new recipes for specialty dinners and seasonal menus.

Why is yuzu so expensive?

Yuzu fruits are often smaller and produce far less juice than lemons.

A 20-litre bucket of fruit produces just 750ml of juice, Ms Sillaots said.

Likewise, the quality of the juice varies wildly, and she felt the $100 bottles from Japan were worth the premium over cheaper juices sold at some Australian liquor stores.

"We use 15ml in a cocktail," she said.

"Just that small amount gives it an incredible flavour.

Paul Edwards said he has not had any problems growing yuzu so far and expects to be very competitive in the market as his trees mature.

"Our climate is similar to Japan, nice cool winters and mild summers," he said.

Ms Sillaots said it was amazing what had been successfully grown in the area.

"I think you can grow anything in Manjimup," Ms Sillaots said.