USA: Brooks adds papaya box, beefs up laboratory

The Packer - 2 Feb 2010

Brooks Tropicals Inc., Homestead, Fla., is introducing a new papaya box, has upgraded its quality control laboratory and has brought in some new personnel to help it improve papaya deliveries. ... read more...

EU Imports: Demand Meltdown

by David Ivanovic (Dakar, Sénégal)

Latest Eurostat figures show a substantial drop in European imports of papayas. For the first ten months of 2009, shipments (26,638 mt) went down by 12% when compared with the same period in 2008 (30,257 mt).

EU-15 Papaya Imports (January to October, in metric tonnes)

Brazilian volumes shrinked by 15%, from nearly 20,000 mt to just under 17,000 tons; La Fruitière interrupted its shipments from Cote d’Ivoire last August, representing a 63% drop (2,900 vs 1,000 mt).

USA: Illinois researchers to develop gender-bending papayas

Nov 2, 2009 - stltoday.com

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have received a $3.1 million National Science Foundation grant they hope will fund research that leads to the development of papayas that only produce hermaphrodite offspring. ... read more...

India: Lucknow farmers benefiting from papaya farming

Lucknow, Nov. 9 (ANI): Farmers in Lucknow have taken up papaya cultivation believing it to be a lucrative option over other crops. “Every 3-4th day, we are dispatching seven to eight quintals of papaya while rest of the fruit will give dividends by November only. It is a lucrative option,” said Ashish Mishra, a papaya farmer. ... read more...

USA: September Papaya Harvest Improves

WASHINGTON - Nov 10/09 - SNS -- Hawaii fresh papaya production is estimated at 2.39 million pounds for September 2009, up 3% from August but 3% lower than September 2008, according to the latest crop production estimates from the USDA.

... read more...

David will be in Japan! Any requests?

by David Ivanovic

I'll be in Japan for a couple of days, and I'll take that opportunity to meet some key players involved in exotics product imports and to share with you how they are marketed in this 130 million people market.

Mata!

Uganda asks farmers to grow pawpaw for Papain

July 19, 2009 - Uganda Pulse

The Minister of State for Agriculture, Henry Bagiire has advised farmers in Uganda to start growing pawpaw on large scale. He says the international demand for Pawpaw juice or papain is on the rise. Bagiire says papain, which is extracted from the lattice juice of paw-paws is used in many countries as a meat tenderizer. It is also used ... read more...