Though still seen as an exotic fruit by many, papayas can be found at almost any major retailer in Europe and North America. HLB Tropical Food, which was formed in Germany by Homero Levy de Barros, was a major player in the development of the papaya market in Europe. When Levy de Barros moved to the US with his family to set up a new independent branch of the company which was called HLB Specialties, they also helped grow and develop the North American market. Air freight allowed for more maturation, more flavor “In the early 1990s in Europe, the papayas on the market were mostly brought in mostly by ocean freight. The deliveries were inconsistent in their arrivals and their volumes and the fruit was picked much too early to ensure it didn’t go bad during its 2-week transit. The food that arrived in Europe was still green and didn’t have much hope of further maturation or developing its flavors,” Hartmann de Barros explains. When HLB began importing the fruit, all of this changed. “We work with the Caliman brand of papayas, which are tree ripened and brought in by air freight. This means that the papayas had a transit time of only two days instead of two weeks and the growers were able to keep the fruit on the tree much longer before harvesting and sending them. We changed the way the fruit was introduced to consumers by displaying fruit that had 50% color on it rather than fully green fruit. This made the fruit much more attractive to the customers because they buy with their eyes.”
HLB was able to transition the papaya from being a niche item to becoming a staple in the market by changing the way in which it was imported and marketed.
