Concerned about creating new opportunities, export strategies, and projects that promote and strengthen the Mexican papaya, ProPapaya A.C. along with the Department of plant sciences of the University of Davis (California, United States), decided to organize the workshop "Biology and post-harvest technology", an initiative funded by the Ministry of agriculture, livestock, Rural Development, fishing and food (SAGARPA).
"We don't want to depend solely on the North American market, we see the possibility of sending papaya to Europe," said Gustavo Garcia, producer and president of ProPapaya A.C. when asked about what prompted them to take this training.
The idea was that participants learned about the latest trends in research and post-harvest techniques developed at the University of Davis, internationally recognized because of its research.
Twenty Mexican fruit producers, especially exporters, had the opportunity to learn about postharvest disease control, food safety, maturation protocols, good agricultural practices, controlled and modified atmospheres, packaging for delicate fruits, etc.
"It was a 16-hour workshop, which focused on the problems there are when collecting, packaging, maturing, transporting and selling papaya to the market," he said. They also visited the Post-Harvest laboratory in Wickson and the maturation facilities in Raley's Distribution Center in Sacramento, California.
"The techniques we saw were focused on, for example, when we marketed papaya and saw that it was very in bad condition. There are many ways to avoid mishandling the papaya, and we can collect it in a better way. That was how we understood that we must improve the way we collect them," said Garcia.
"We saw that the way we collected the fruit and the maturation process we implemented on it wasn't the appropriate way of cooling the fruit. We used to cut the fruit and send it to the refrigerating rooms, without giving it the proper time to cool, thus realizing we had to implement better collecting techniques," he said.
Regarding their goal of reaching the European market, Garcia said that they are currently making small shipments of the fruit so that they try the product, but that they have plans to increase export volumes. "We are sending around 6-12 tons of papaya to Europe, because the company that is buying had no other market and wanted to test the quality of the fruit from Mexico. However, we want to increase this amount, starting January next year, to twenty-five tons per week. "
"In fact, Bargosa Fruit Company, which is the company with which we are dealing in Barcelona, is coming next week because they want to see the papaya plantations we have in Michoacan."
Thus, with the help of Bargosa, and thanks to the knowledge gained in the workshop at the University of Davis, the papaya producers are starting to get ready to increase exports to Europe.
"Bargosa, which is currently distributing products in Portugal, wants to make a commitment with Germany, Sweden and Finland, but they must first be assured that the papaya we are sending from Mexico is safe and has a good quality," said Garcia.
Finally, asked about the possibility of exporting to other markets, Garcia said that they were starting talks with Japan, but that there was currently nothing for certain.
Based on information from portalfruticola