ABSTRACT
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% of the total tropical fruit production, after mango with 38.6 Mt (52.86%) and pineapple with 19.41 Mt (26.58%). Globally,
papaya production has grown significantly over the last few years, mainly as a result of increased production in India. Papayas are produced in about 60 countries, with the bulk of production occurring in the developing economies (Figure 1.2).
