PAPAYA – Market and International Trade

Back to > Major Fruits | Minor Fruits | Underutilized Fruits

Export grading: Grading should be carried out as soon as possible after harvest, and fruit left under ambient conditions to continue ripening or placed at 10° to 12°C for cooling and storage. On arrival in the packing facility, fruit should be washed in water to remove latex and debris then treated in a 0.05% Thiabendazole solution for anthracnose control. Washing, treatment and grading can be carried out using mechanized or manual systems (Washer and disinfectant container for papaya fruits.), depending on the volumes of fruits. Grading in each carton is required in terms of size, sex (shape) and stage of ripeness. Female and hermaphrodite fruit cannot be mixed in the same carton; all fruits must be of a similar size in each carton resulting in a range of counts, and separations must be made for the degree of ripeness. Carton net weight is dependent on the importer, ranging from 3.5 to 5 kg and must not be overfilled during packing.

Quality Criteria: Papayas should be exported with the required size and stage of ripeness (as defined in the market specifications) with sufficient yellow peel and orange or red pulp coloration, free from bruises, blemishes, insect and spray damage and uniform in size and ripeness within each carton.

Export Criteria: Papaya intended for export are carefully graded by size and stage of ripeness. Fruit should be uniform in size and ripeness and be free from bruises, blemishes, and insect damage. Most importers also require that papaya be mostly yellow and have a uniform softness; a smooth, unblemished skin; and a minimum sugar content of 12 °Brix.

When harvested, papayas are green with a stripe of yellow at their base; they ripen during transport or are commercially ripened on arrival. As papaya ripens, skin colour changes from green to yellow, and the fruit becomes softer and develops a fruity aroma. Papayas are normally sold to consumers when they are at least one-quarter ripe. Optimal ripeness occurs at the three-quarter stage, when the fruit bears a yellow-orange peel and an orange-red pulp. Peel colour may vary from yellow to reddish-orange, depending on the variety of papaya.

Three Hawaiian varieties —SoloSunrise, Kapoho, and Waimanalo— are the most popular, and Solo Sunrise is the most important in world trade. Papayas of all three varieties are relatively small, normally weighing from 250 to 500 grams. Some countries are beginning to produce and export several Taiwanese varieties, which tend to be larger than those fromHawaii. Some markets require very large, local varieties of pawpaw. In the Latin market in theUnited States, for example, papayas weigh about 3 kilograms.

Fruit shape is not a function of variety but of the sex of the plant the fruit grows on. Round fruit comes from a female plant, and traditional pear-shaped fruit comes from a hermaphrodite plant. Because the market prefers pear-shaped fruit, female plants are normally removed from production as soon as their sex is known.

Papayas are harvested by hand alone or with knives or specialized tools, depending on the size and age of the tree. When harvesting papayas by hand or with knives, harvesters snap or cut the stem directly adjacent to the tree and immediately trim it flush against the top of the fruit. To reach fruit at the top of tall trees, harvesters use a long pole with a small hoop and a small, mesh bag at the end. Above the hoop sits a horizontal blade, which the harvester positions below the stem of the fruit and moves upward to detach the papaya from the tree and catch it in the mesh bag below. Two or three fruits are collected at a time in this manner. Bags should be shallow to prevent overfilling and should be made of a soft material to prevent damage to the papaya skin.

After harvest, the fruit are placed gently —never thrown or dropped— in single layers in shallow, light-colored plastic field crates, preferably with a foam layer for cushioning. Mesh bags, sacks, or baskets are unacceptable for papaya transport because of the fruit’s high susceptibility to bruising. Care should be taken during transport to minimize jostling of the fruit, and all stems should be trimmed to ensure that no stem-to-fruit rubbing occurs. Prior to collection, field crates and fruit should be left in shaded conditions, protected from the sun and rain.

Grading and packing should be carried out as soon as possible after harvest, normally within three hours, after which time the fruit should be kept at ambient tropical conditions (25°C to 28°C) to continue ripening, or cooled and stored at 10°C to 12°C.

Standard packing house design and operations apply for papaya grading and packing. Operations can be carried out with basic equipment, including water tanks, field crates, and grading tables, or with automated washing and weight-grading or separation systems. All tanks and grading tables should be covered with foam to protect fruit from exposed edges; the skin of the pawpaw is delicate, and scratches will result in latex exudation and staining. Similarly, if the fruit is dropped, it will easily develop bruises as it ripens.

Storage and Transportation Importers require fruit at specific stages of ripeness for optimum sales; this varies between 50 and 70% yellow colour depending on the importer, the market and the time of year. For fruit to arrive in the importing country at the correct color stage, attention has to be paid to the maximum and minimum color stages on departure from the pack house, the length of the shipment period (24 hours when considering UK, Canada and USA, and 48 hours for Holland) and the temperature in the importing country. Thus, color stages on departure from the pack house for air shipment can vary from 20% to 50%, and the selections are generally more rigid during the summer months due to the rapid rates of ripening on arrival in importing countries. fruit exported too green (less than 20% yellow color) will fail to ripen adequately when temperatures in importing countries are low, particularly in winter months.

Sea-shipment of papayas is possible when fruits are shipped at the optimum harvest maturity, with one or two yellow streaks. Shipments should be made at 10 to 12°C and 85 to 95% relative humidity, in refrigerated holds or reefer containers. Post-harvest disease control is critical with sea-shipment, particularly anthracnose and phytopthora. Color development during sea-shipment usually increases from 10% to 40% during 10 days at 12°C, and will develop further during the customs, clearance and delivery period on arrival.

Importers require fruit at specific stages of ripeness for optimum sales; this varies between 50 and 70% yellow color depending on the importer, the market and the time of year. For fruit to arrive in the importing country at the correct color stage, attention has to be paid to the maximum and minimum color stages on departure from the pack-house, the length of the shipment period (24 hours when considering UK, Canada and USA, and 48 hours for Holland) and the temperature in the importing country. Thus, color stages on departure from the pack-house for air shipment can vary from 20% to 50%, and the selections are generally more rigid during the summer months due to the rapid rates of ripening on arrival in importing countries. fruit exported too green (less than 20% yellow color) will fail to ripen adequately when temperatures in importing countries are low, particularly in winter months.

Fruit harvested and placed to ripen at the recommended harvest stage (one yellow stripe) will ripen to 60 to 70% yellow coloration within four to six days under ambient tropical conditions (25° to 28°C). Fruit transferred to low temperature storage (10° to 12°C), when harvested at the one-stripe stage, will store successfully for 14 to 21 days if post-harvest disease incidence can be controlled. When harvested at more advanced stages of ripening, the storage life will be significantly reduced.

1. Chong, S.T.,  R. Prabhakaran and H.K. Lee. ISHS Acta Horticulturae 787: International Workshop on Tropical and Subtropical Fruits.
2. Lamberts, M. and J.H. Crane. 1990. Tropical fruits. p. 337-355. In: J. Janick and J.E. Simon (eds.), Advances in new crops. Timber Press,Portland,OR.
3. Morton, J. 1987. Papaya. p. 336–346. In: Fruits of warm climates. Julia F. Morton,Miami,FL.