The Produce News, January 19, 2005
Offshore Produce
By Tad Thompson
Seven years after entering the Belizean papaya business, Brooks Tropicals, based in Homestead, FL, now operates 65 Belize plantations, with over 1,000 workers involved in papaya production, packing and exports.
Frans Boetes, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Brooks, said the firm grows its own "Caribbean Red" brand Maradol papaya, was well as the smaller Solo Sunrise papaya.
The US demand for papayas, "From what I see now, is really interesting. You normally sell papayas to people with certain ethnic backgrounds, but now we’re looking at nationwide activity. Consumers are seeing more and more cooking shows and they are reading more and more cook books, as they want to be more creative. That has stimulated the whole market, with more exciting things like this fruit in the normal daily diet. This has helped tremendously" in marketing new products such as the Caribbean Red, because "the taste of the Caribbean Red is so good. It is really wonderful. It’s not musty. It has a better taste than a melon or whatever. You have to display it and show people the beautiful red inside of the fruit." The Caribbean Red, he emphasized, is "a really big, beautiful papaya" which is marketed 12 months a year.
In April Brooks will seasonally import Belizean Solo Sunrise papayas with "high expectations" because of a "new, really attractive box."
Brooks’ papayas program has been highly successful because the company has placed very strict controls on product handling, with the fruit kept within tight cold chain parameters from the packing house to customer deliveries.
Mr. Boetes said that, unlike Brooks’ Pine Island, FL, carambola packing facility, the company’s papaya operations of Belize escaped hurricane damage in 2004. The star fruit facilities have been rebuilt.
In addition to papayas, Brooks Tropicals has another offshore program with Uniq fruit from Jamaica. Mr. Boetes describes Uniq fruit as "bigger than a tangerine and smaller than grapefruit, but has the taste of a tangerine; and no seeds." The Uniq fruit is also characterized by a thick skin and peals easily. "It tastes great," he said, adding that the Jamaican production also escaped damage from 2004 hurricanes.
While Mr. Boetes prefers to offer no Brooks product volume numbers, he said in 2005 the company’s Uniq fruit volume "will see an increase." In a January 19 interview, he noted the Uniq season was just ready to begin, and would run until July. Uniq fruit is briefly on the market again in August and September, the starts again, running from October to December.
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