PAPAYA POST HARVEST

Papaya (Carica papaya) or known as Buah Betik in Malaysia are among popular fruit crop. Total area of papaya planted in 2010 about 3,410 hectare produce for 49,790 metric tones increased to 3,545 hectare in 2011. Papaya in Malaysia are for domestic consumption about 35% and the remaining is for international export. Singapore, China and Middle East are the traditional papaya importers since many years ago. Few popular papaya varieties grown in Malaysia are Excotica Papaya, Betik Sekaki, Betik Hong Kong , Betik Subang and Betik Solo. 

Matured papaya harvested from the farm.

Fresh Exotica II papaya fully ripe for domestic market. This varieties easily reach 20 degrees tested by Brix meter. Farm gate prise range between RM 1.00 - RM 1.50 / kg  

Fresh papaya fruit washed with clean water for 10-15 minutes in the running water. This container able to process more than 1,000 fruits in an hours. 

Clean papaya fruit rolled softly from the cleaning container to the drying area.

Air Drying Blower on the roller to ensure all fruit are dry before grading. The mild hot air able to remove the water in 2-5 minutes.

Conveyor from the dryer to the grading compartment for checking the fruit size, fruit weight, appearance, damages and off-grades. 

Grading activities by experience workers. This is the critical activity to ensure the papaya for export quality are determined.

Each papaya fruit are wraps with spongy netted layer before labelled and arranged in the box.

The Malaysian Papaya ready for export to the international market after certified the Fruit Quality by the authority.

The fresh Malaysian papaya for the visitors in this processing site. The taste are really sweet, crunchy, juicy, soft and very tasty!

At last we has to to visit the large farms at TKPM Lanchang, Temerloh, Pahang about 4,000 hectare. The Jackfruit, Papaya, Fragrant Coconut among popular commodities in this area.

By,
M Anem
Temerloh
Pahang
(22 Zulhijah 1432H)