Despite the catering lockdown, the sale of papayas is currently going well, according to Sanne Huisman of Yex. “Papayas are becoming an increasingly important item on the shelf and our retail customers are more than making up for the lost sales to the catering industry. For example, many Formosa papayas are currently going to the German retail, while the Golden papayas are more popular with British customers. "
Sanne Huisman from Yex
While Brazil is still the main supply country for papayas, the importer is also looking closer to home for the exotic. "From the perspective of Corporate Social Responsibility, we aim to reduce the footprint and CO2 emissions of our products as much as possible. This is also high on the agenda for our retail customers. For that reason, we have recently started importing papayas from the Canary Islands. These papayas are available year-round and I expect that within a few years we will source a larger share of our papayas from Europe. We are also currently investigating the possibility of extending the shelf life of the papayas with the use of coatings to prevent food waste."
The peak in production is between August and October, but the papayas are available all year round. The supply of the papayas is stable this year. Although Yex also uses sea freight at certain times of the year, air freight is still the most used transport route for the Brazilian papayas. "Unfortunately, we see that due to the Corona pandemic, air freight prices are still very high. This results in a fairly high consumer price, while in many cases that money does not reach the growers," says Sanne.
Yex is currently preparing for the Easter sale. "Holidays continue to cause the biggest peak in sales. That applies to Christmas, but certainly also to Easter. Given the weather conditions - the papayas currently have to ripen a little longer, which results in somewhat larger sizes with the Golden papaya - I expect it to be a challenge to meet the demand," says Sanne.
For the coming years, the buyer expects the papaya market to continue to grow. "It is a growing product group with a lot of potential. For us as Yex, Germany, England and Scandinavia are the largest sales markets. In our 'Discovered' box, the papaya really stands out on the shelf. We provide a lot of inspiration and information to consumers about the papaya on our website www.discovered.nl. This is essential as we want even more consumers to enjoy this delicious product. Many suppliers are currently expanding their capacity, so we expect to see good growth in the coming years."
For more information:
Sanne Huisman
Yex 
T: +31 174 214526
[email protected]
www.yex.nl
