‘Perfect’ papaya now being exported to Canada

The variety of papaya known as “Perfect” or “World’s Best” — the Costa Rican hybrid Pococi — is now being enjoyed by Canadians, and national agricultural officials and agribusinesses hope it will soon find its way to Europe, where samples have been positively received.

In order to make the flavor of these unique Costa Rican papayas known, a group of local agribusinesses took part in a week-long exporters’ mission during the month of May in Toronto, Canada. The mission was supported by the Trade Promotion Office of the Costa Rican Foreign Corporation (Procomer). The activity yielded some 99 business meetings with well-known supermarket chains such as Sobeys, Loblaws and Metro.

The Ministry of Agriculture (MAG) is promoting the cultivation of papayas using good management practices, rational utilization of inputs and good harvesting practices that would guarantee the shelf life of the fruits up to the moment they are sold in their final market destinations.

According to MAG’s non-traditional fruits manager, Alberto Montero Gonzalez, Costa Rica has the ideal conditions to grow the “perfect” papayas, which were developed by ministry experts and are mainly grown in the Caribbean region (Guacimo and Pococi), the Northern Zone (La Fortuna), and the Central Pacific (Orotina and Parrita).

“Costa Rica has some 1,000 hectares of papayas planted, of which 400 correspond to the Pococi hybrid, while the rest has the local variety known as ‘lucia’, among others,” Montero Gonzalez said.

The Pococi hybrid boasts excellent flavor, sweetness, compact pulp, deep orange color, and high productivity — up to 80 tons per hectare per year, with each fruit reaching an average weight of 1 to 1.5 kilograms.

Montero Gonzalez added that Costa Rica is in a great position to increase production and commercialization of the Pococi hybrid, as the country has enough seed at the Los Diamantes Experiment Station in Guapiles (INTA-MAG) and the Fabio Baudrit Experiment Station (UCR-MAG).

The cost of seed per hectare of the Pococi hybrid is about 40,000 colones ($70), with expenses for establishing the crop and production costs totaling some 6 million colones ($10,500) per hectare for an 18-24 production period.

MAG and the National Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer Institute INTA) offers growers field days, technical assistance and technology transfer so that they can be successful in the papaya-growing operations.

A recent outreach event took place last April 28 at the Guacimo Cantonal Agricultural Center in the province of Limon.


Source: insidecostarica.com

Publication date: 5/27/2009