Given the possible entry of Peruvian papaya to the U.S. market, William Daga, fruit specialist at the National Institute of Agrarian Innovation (INIA), said Peru should be prepared regarding the fruit's production. To do this, he said, they must define what type of papaya the United States wants and start producing it.
"We have papayas in many sizes and big calibres, as well as with yellow and orange pulps. So we need to know what the U.S. wants to start growing and promoting that variety," he said.
Regarding size, he said that Latin Americans in the U.S. prefer papayas of 1.8 kilos and 2 kilos and the juice factories want papayas between 3 kilos and 3.5 kilos.
He also noted that they had to incorporate a gene tolerant to the ringspot virus (Papaya ringspot virus - PRSV) to the requested papaya variety, as the incidence of this virus is a concern in Peru because, being an endemic disease, it is present in all of the producing areas. Another virus to watch out for is the pata de rana, he added.
He pointed out that the only papaya production areas free of the PRSV are the new plantation areas. However, in time, the virus will also attack these areas forcing farmers to migrate to new locations to begin producing, thus, generating deforestation problems.
William Daga said that, from 2005 to 2008, the INIA, together with the National Service of Agrarian Health (Senasa) and the International Potato Centre (CIP) prompted the development of technologies for papaya in endemic areas where the fruit had already been cultivated (and the virus was present).
"This technique which involved fertilization, fences, weed removal, host and vector removal somehow managed to help producers to produce papaya. However, due to a lack of diffusion of the technique and the fear of the producers to plant in these areas, where in the past they lost all of their production, it has not been widely accepted, "he said.
On the subject of post-harvest, the fruit specialist said there was a lot of research done by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (EMBRAPA) to export papayas to Europe by air and sea so it was just a matter of applying that research to their shipments.
"This research involves the disinfection, processing, packaging and preserving of the fruit during transport (be it by air or sea), among other things," he explained.
Source: Agraria.pe