Malaysia: Mardi's 'quick and easy' approach for papayas

In efforts to boost demand, the Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute (Mardi) has switched from its focus on producing sweet, tasty and smooth-skin papaya to that of pleasant "quick and easy" ways to serve this tropical fruit.

Mardi's "Eksotika" papaya variety has the advantage as it is not available in other producer-countries and therefore controls the China, Hong Kong and Singapore markets.

Imagine this scenario: A papaya skin that can be easily peeled off like that of a banana?...or we can stretch our imagination further and picture drinking its nourishing juice through a straw inserted into the gently-squeezed fruit.

Mardi's Horticulture Senior Research Officer Dr Chan Ying Kwok said even though this scenario is still in its initial stages of research, it is not impossible to achieve as there is a banana-shaped variety of papaya in existence.

"Enjoying papaya without the need to use a fruit-knife can be used to boost demand for this tropical fruit.

"Research is being carried out to find a way to produce a papaya variety where the fruit's skin can be easily peeled off like that of a banana," Dr Chan said during the First International Simposium On Papaya themed "Papaya For The World" held here recently.

The three-day symposium gathered experts and researchers from more than 30 countries, sharing their experience and knowledge on the latest papaya-related developments.

He said more research should be carried out to produce a variety of low-fibre and seedless papaya to enable the juice to be "sucked out" directly from the fruit.

For this research, Dr Chan suggested the round-shaped Golden Beauty Cairns papaya variety.

Higher demand

Meanwhile Mardi's Technology Management and Economic Research Centre Research Officer Mohd Rashid Rabu said demand for papaya is on the surge and the fruit has great potential in the world tropical fruits market.

He said the total turnover for the globe's papaya sale was US$95.4 million (US$1=RM3.80) in 1999 and this reached US$183.7 million last year.

"Malaysia achieved US$15.7 million for its sale of papaya in 1999 and this climbed to US$22.5 million last year," he said.

After Mexico, Malaysia is the world's next largest exporter of papaya, respectively commanding 40 and 25 per cent of the market share.

In terms of competition, Rashid said Mardi's "Eksotika" papaya variety has the advantage as it is not available in other producer-countries and therefore controls the China, Hong Kong and Singapore markets.

"The Eksotika papaya variety is in high demand abroad as its small size is suitable for importer nations where the population comprises small-sized families," Rashid told Bernama.

According to Rashid, Malaysia is now capable of producing up to 72,000 tonnes of papaya annually and this figure is expected to surge to 300,000 tonnes a year in 2010.

Packaging technology

Mardi's Food Technology Research Centre Deputy Director Rohani Md Yon said apart from increasing production, the other factor that needs focus is the packaging technique to enable the fruit to be exported to distant countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Australia and Japan.

Hence, Mardi has introduced a technology that extends the preservation of the fruit from one to two weeks to that of four to six weeks to help Malaysian exporters reduce the cost of air freight.

"When the storage period is prolonged, exporters who have been forced to use air freight can now switch to using sea transportation which is four times cheaper," she told Bernama in an interview here.

Unfortunately not many of these producers are keen to use the new packaging technique as they are more familiar and comfortable with the "old technology" of simply wrapping the fruit with old newspapers.

This is affirmed by Jeffrey Choong who is the managing director of Exotic Star Sdn Bhd, the biggest Malaysian papaya exporter.

Choong said he does not subscribe to Mardi's packaging technology as this needs a clean and sterile environment to ensure that the fruit is fungal free.

He said the present packaging method is acceptable to exporters sending the papaya to Hong Kong and China as both nations are not so distant from Malaysia.

Emulate Brazil

However Brazil, the next biggest exporter of papaya after Malaysia, gives priority to the hygienic aspect of the fruit, right from the moment it is harvested at the orchards until the stage where it reaches the packaging factories.

"We focuses on keeping the (packaging) factories clean, just like that in hospitals. At the farms, the equipment is kept sterile in order to prevent spread of any virus," a university researcher from Brazil, Osvaldo Kiyoshi Yamanishi told Bernama.

He said this is part of the Integrated Papaya Production programme introduced by the Brazil government in the year 2000, in efforts to improve standards in papaya production.

Yamanishi said there are only 18 papaya plantations in Brazil, each at least 10 hectares wide, as compared to Malaysia which has many smaller-sized orchards operated on the small scale.

"This system is not only to encourage production of papaya that meets the international market standard but also to give it the competitive edge in the economic aspect," he said.

He said the system canvasses cooperation from tens of government and non-governmental agencies.

Technology use

Brazil exercises extreme care in technology usage and does not resort to transgenic technology, which advocates altering the fruit DNA, to avoid attacks by pests and virus which is currently a hot topic in the industry.

"We are more comfortable with the conventional technique of using regular pesticide sprays. However the hygienic aspect is always the priority," he said.

Meanwhile in Thailand, a researcher said papaya is a fruit dessert taken daily but the society is still yet to accept papaya produced transgenically.

"Despite the research has been completed, the papaya cannot be marketed to the public due to political constraints and objections from non-governmental organisations against genetically-altered fruits," he said.

This has caused the papaya-related technology development in Thailand to remain stagnant for years despite the surge in demand for the tropical fruit, said the Thai researcher.

Therefore Malaysia needs to exercise caution in its choice of technology to ensure the country's Eksotika papaya variety to grab a huge chunk of the world market.

Source