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‘Perfect’ Papaya Now Being Exported to
Canada
‘Perfect’
Papaya Now Being Exported to Canada
(InfoWebPress) – 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 weeklong
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.
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