He's just learnt the lesson that even the most innocuous of photo opportunities - this time with a fruiterer from Melbourne - can have unintended consequences, and a back story not totally to his liking.

Having made so much play of his asylum seeker policy with a "Stop the Boats" campaign slogan, Mr Abbott used his last media opportunity before leaving Melbourne today to get to know some of the entrepeneurial success stories of Australian migration.

He enjoyed the company of Fruit Land store owner Hayden Tran, who arrived in Australia illegally by boat from Vietnam in 1986, and his wife, Leang Chy.

Although Mr Tran was too polite to reveal his life story to Mr Abbott while meeting him, he was later asked by journalists about his migration to Australia and he then discussed his journey by boat and detention in a refugee camp.

"We are actually boat people but we did not want to refer to it today," he said.

Asked about the Coalition and the government's policies on asylum seekers, Mr Tran said: "It could be a bit tough. To shuffle the whole lot off to PNG, or the Pacific ... that is just passing the buck.

"I think it could be done on land. We are 22 million people - we are minute."

Mr Tran, 34, arrived after spending time in an Indonesian refugee camp. His wife, 31, was a sponsored migrant from Cambodia.

The couple welcomed Mr Abbott, the local candidate for Deakin Phil Barresi and shadow small business minister Bruce Bilson into their store in Ringwood East about midday. Mr Abbott helped stack oranges, bananas and grapes and chatted to the couple about the pressures facing small business.

He also helped feed their 20-month-old son, Jason Tran, easy-peel oranges from Mildura.

Mr Tran also said that he was not happy with the government's economic record, including its wasteful spending.