The fruits are elongated in the hermaphrodites plants. The pulp is red-orange yellow. The fruits medium weigh is between 900 to 1.100 grams. It has a wonderful flavor, a long life and is robust for transportation. It also has a sturdy pulp and 10.8º BRIX.

 

Production papaya Formosa stages at the farm

Plantation (cultivation): It has four stages. The first one begins with rootstock germination in tubettes. The second stage is the seedling is ready to be plant in its final place. We use three seedlings in each hole for further selection. The third stage is the sexing in which only the hermaphrodite plant remains. The fourth stage are the cultivation per se, to improve the fruits doing the pest management.

Harvesting: is made according the client requested maturation time. Usually, the fruits are harvest between maturation stages 1 and 2. The harvest is manually made by trained workers using individual protection equipment, like latex gloves, to prevent burns from the natural latex expelled by the plant. The fruits are packed in bubble plastic wrap to avoid mechanic damage to then.

Quality control: It’s made manually in the packing house where the fruits are wash, wax and sorted by maturations stages, weight and size.

The packaging: It’s made according the client’s requirements in plastic or paper boxes. Each fruit has a foam net to avoid damages in transportation. All the packages have a bar code that informs the client dada about the fruit like harvest place and date, packaging date. All of that ensure the product quality from the flower till the fruit.

 

Production estimation

The Formosa papaya Brazilian´s productivity is about 60 t/ha/year in places without irrigation systems. It´s not our reality. The farm´s plant density is about 1.500 plants/ha (space between plants lines 1,8 X 3,5 meters) and the harvest time depends on the weather. For example: in the summer takes 130 days from the flower till the harvest. In the winter it takes until 200 days from the flower to the fruit.

As we have 40 hectares in our Formosa crop and 24 hectares more that will be harvest in the end of 2016, our estimate production is about 150t/ha/year. We have ready for delivery 500.000 kg/month.

 

Curiositys

In countries like Sri Lanka (Asia), Tanzania and Uganda (Africa) the papaya fruit is sell unripe to the industry because the latex from the unripe fruit is transformed in a white powder and use as base to medicines for stomachache, powder to tenderize the meet, wool, leather, etc.