The global production of papaya in 2005 was over 6.6 million mt (Table 1). Of this, 25.7% of world production was produced by Brazil (1.7 million mt), followed by Nigeria (11.4%), Mexico (10.2%) and India (10.6%).

The most important papaya exporter in 2005 was Mexico at 68,558 mt or 32.1% of the world export, followed by Malaysia (28.5%), Brazil (13.4%), Belize (5.3%) and USA (Hawaii) (3.3%) (Table 2).

The most important importer of papaya in 2005 was USA with 116,047 mt or 40.9% of the global import (Table 3). The produce to this destination was supplied by Mexico and Hawaii . The next largest importers were China and Singapore with 16.8% and 9.1% respectively of the total world import. The major supplier to these markets is Malaysia.

Table 1: Top 5 papaya-producing Countries in 2005

Source: FOASTAT

Table 2: Top 5 papaya-exporting countries in 2005

Source: FOASTAT

Table 3: Top 5 papaya-importing countries in 2005

Source: FOASTAT