Agência Brasil
Brasília – The state of Bahia, which is now exporting papaya to the European Union, could be exporting the fruit to the US before the end of this year. Bahian papaya is now within the sanitation standards of the so-called "system approach," which is a tracking process that monitors planting, growth, transportation and diseases.
Last week a US Department of Agriculture mission was in Bahia inspecting export-class papaya. According to spokesman for the state agricultural secretariat, the US could import as much as 34,200 tons of papaya by 2005.
Canada is also expected to buy 6,000 tons of Bahian papaya, while Germany will buy 3,000 tons.
Bahia is now producing 600,000 tons of papaya annually.
