Peach palm - World Agroforestry Centre
Peach palm - World Agroforestry Centre
Peach palm - World Agroforestry Centre
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5 8 <strong>Peach</strong> <strong>palm</strong>. Bactris gasipaes Kunth<br />
10 Production areas and commercial potential<br />
10.1 Fruit<br />
<strong>Peach</strong> <strong>palm</strong> fruit is still produced principally as a subsistence crop for local<br />
consumption and sale. Consequently, although fruit production occurs in many<br />
regions, the total land area under production is rather limited. It is an item of<br />
broader national commerce only in Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama, and<br />
international commerce is just beginning to develop. Currently, the major<br />
exporting country is Costa Rica, which sells a small amount of processed fruit to<br />
other countries in Central America, to the United States and Canada. South<br />
American producing countries are not yet exporting processed fruits, but some are<br />
exporting seeds to expand heart-of-<strong>palm</strong> plantations. International commerce in<br />
the fruit is limited because: (1) the fruit has a peculiar texture and taste to the<br />
uninitiated (starchy rather than juicy), (2) fresh fruits are highly perishable, (3)<br />
processed products of high quality are lacking, (4) alternative processing<br />
approaches to develop new high-quality products have not received much<br />
consideration, and (5) the few processed products that currently exist have not<br />
been adequately marketed, resulting in little demand. If an imaginative marketing<br />
campaign were to create demand for quality fruit products, fruit production could<br />
be increased relatively quickly to satisfy the demand.<br />
Reliable production data per country are not available because the fruit is still<br />
relatively unimportant for national and international commerce. The major areas<br />
of peach <strong>palm</strong> fruit production and consumption are listed below.<br />
• Bolivia – produced mainly in Chapare region and Santa Cruz Province north<br />
to Brazil.<br />
• Peru – produced mainly in Loreto province of the Amazon Basin, especially<br />
near the lower Ucayali, lower Huallaga, lower Marañon and upper Amazon<br />
rivers; well-known production areas are Yurimaguas, Iquitos and Pevas.<br />
• Brazil – available in nearly all markets along the Amazon River and its<br />
tributaries; most common in Belém, Santarém, Manaus, Tefé, Tabatinga,<br />
Cruzeiro do Sul, Rio Branco and Plácido de Castro.<br />
• Ecuador – produced on both sides of Andes Mountains; consumed mainly in<br />
the Amazon Basin, and in Esmeraldes Province on the Pacific Coast.<br />
• Colombia – produced mainly near the Putumayo, Caquetá, Vaupés, Inírida and<br />
Guaviare rivers of the Amazon Basin; also produced along the Pacific Coast and<br />
the middle Magdalena River west of Andes Mountains, and in the Urabá region<br />
on the Caribbean side. Cali is a large market for fruit produced along the Pacific<br />
Coast and Putumayo River.<br />
• Panama – produced mainly in the Chiriquí, Bocas del Toro, central Panama and<br />
Darien regions. Panama City is the largest market. Some production from<br />
Chiriquí is sold in Costa Rica.<br />
• Costa Rica – produced mainly in Tucurrique, and also along the Caribbean and<br />
southern Pacific Coasts; marketed throughout the country.