by Felix Chaudhary, The Fiji Times Online
The papaya export sector has been affected by pests, wet weather and increased local demand, says Nature’s Way Co-operative Ltd CEO Michael Brown.
Papaya, once the country’s premier export, has now been superseded by eggplant demand from the New Zealand market.
The head of the Nadi-based fruit and vegetable treatment facility said demand for locally grown fruit had also declined because of increased production in Australia.
“There were a number of reasons that papaya export numbers were not what we expected,” he said.
“The wet season so far has affected papaya production with high level of fungal diseases and as a result not enough papaya available for the export market.
“Another factor is the price of papaya in local markets is quite high and growers prefer to sell to local buyers rather than to exporters.
“Another significant reason was very high production in Australia.”
Papaya exports grew from 121 tonnes in 2012 to 246 tonnes in 2013 and 453 in 2014.
Papaya and eggplants are two bilateral quarantine agreement commodities exported from Fiji to Australia and New Zealand.
Source: Fiji Times