Expert papaya producers from different parts of the world and from within the country will have their world congress in Merida from the 24th to the 27th of October, where they will expose the nutraceutical importance of this fruit and its new export opportunities.
The official name of this "Papayeros summit" is the V International Symposium of Papaya and in parallel Mexican producers will hold their IX National Papayeros Encounter at the city's El Conquistador hotel.
Experts from Canada, the United States, Brazil, India, Costa Rica and producers and researchers from 10 Mexican entities, which are the main papaya producers in the world have already confirmed their attendance.
One of this papayeros summit's coordinators, Dr. Jorge Santamaria Fernández, head researcher for the Center for Scientific Research of Yucatan (CICY), reported that this event is sponsored by the International Society of Horticultural Sciences and is the summit where all the productive, scientific and marketing chain elite is present, making it the world's most important on this fruit species. They will discuss topics on fruit genetics, tolerance to pest's diseases, effects of drought, commercialization and the use of papaya for medical purposes, called nutraceutical, because it is scientifically proven that the consumption of this fruit is healthy, and acts as the human body's protector when there is constant medicine consumption, as well as preventing diabetes and other degenerative diseases.
Santamaría Fernández reported that it is the first time that Mexico will host this "papayeros summit" and Mérida was selected to host the more than 120 elite experts of the papaya's productive chain in the world.
"There will be issues of great interest such as new opportunities to export to other markets because as of now Mexico only sells to the United States," he said. "There are new markets in Europe, Japan, Canada, China and other nations that demand this fruit, now that the North American Free Trade Agreement is at risk."
This event had always been organized by Asia from its first editions. They were already headquartered in Malaysia, Singapore, India and Australia, but now Mexico is its headquarters for our importance in terms of food production.
"We beat Hawaii and Brazil, two of the most important producers of papaya," commented the researcher, Joaquín Chan Caamal
Papaya Growers Congress
Merida will host the papayeros' world congress, from October 24 to 27.
Visits
The event also includes a visit to Pamasur's papaya production unit, in Tizimín, which exports the fruit, and a visit to the archaeological sites of Chichén Itzá.
Interest
"We put ourselves with this event in the eyes of the international chain, it is a golden opportunity to show what Yucatan does well," said Dr. Jorge Santamaría Fernández, organizer
Activities
The inauguration, the conferences and the panel will be held in the El Mirador hall of the Hotel Conquistador, located in the emblematic Paseo de Montejo, while the closing ceremony will be in the Olimpo Cultural Center.
Source: yucatan.com.mx
