How it work

The market demand for tropical fruits has been growing steadily over the past two decades. Global production of tropical fruits (excluding bananas) reached 73.02 million (M) metric tonnes (t) in 2010. Gaining in popularity worldwide, papaya is now ranked third with 11.22 Mt, or 15.36 percent of the total tropical fruit production, behind mango with 38.6 Mt (52.86%) and pineapple with 19.41 Mt (26.58%). Global papaya production has grown significantly over the last few years, mainly as a result of increased production in India. Papaya has become an important agricultural export for developing countries, where export revenues of the fruit provide a livelihood for thousands of people, especially in Asia and Latin America. Papaya exports contribute to the growing supply of healthy food products on international markets. The top three exporting countries accounted for 63.28 percent of the total global exports of papaya between 2007 and 2009, with more than half of those exports going to the United States.

 An overview of the current and future trends of global papaya production and trade, and the main papaya exporting and importing countries is presented herewith.

Those weakness may be credited to major constrains of this industry such as virus diseases that impacts production negatively with decreased and/or impediment to production. Viruses are considered the main drivers of the reduced expansion of production sites globally and may continue to pose constrains in the future, with linear growth that may be better connected with new plantation areas than productivity

Another constrains referrers to general deficiencies in infrastructure, logistics and post-harvest treatment, among others, but these may have been addressed by globalization and the expansion of the global fruit transit and commercialization, and the consequent afflux of information and revenues, as visualized at the steady exponential growth of trade volumes

New constrains identified at this work are related to climate changes and the rapid movement of producing areas from a region or country to another. This situation may pose severe shortages to farmers and local economies, and may impact future growth of this industry towards capacitation and bigger investment needs. Based on the collected data and information papaya industry is a relevant sector, but constrains impairs growth and leverage to the production side. Opposingly, trade did not show any sign of those negative factors, which may be partially credited to high number of producing locations – traders have a ample choice of fruits, available year-round due to different geographical locations and conditions of the producing areas; and the huge distance between produced and traded fruits - only 2.7 percent of total papaya produced enters international trade.

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Market opportunities 

Dried papaya is the dried form of the papaya fruit, scientifically known as Carica papaya. Native to the American tropics and central America, papaya fruit can be eaten raw, but it is popularly dried so that it can be stored for longer periods of time. In some parts of the world, this fruit is known as papaw or pawpaw. The fruit is composed largely of water (approximately 88%), but when it is dried, it becomes a nutrient-dense snack that can be energizing and beneficial for your health. Packed with various enzymes, minerals, and antioxidants, this papaya can be unsweetened or sweetened.