Papaya is grown in the Caribbean and Pacific because of its strong export potential. For this export to expand, growers and shippers need to continually improve the quality of shipped fruit.
Fruit sugars are crucial for flavor and marketability.
Once initial flowering occurs, the papaya tree flowers and sets fruit continuously, requiring an uninterrupted supply of carbohydrates for fruit development and a full flavor. Developing fruit have a very large demand for sugars that has to be supplied from the leaves. Papaya lacks stored sugar reserves such as starch found in bananas, and must remain attached to the plant to accumulate sugars. During papaya fruit development, total sugar content increased slowly during the first two thirds of fruit development, then increases rapidly during fruit ripening. Variety, timing of harvest and ripening stage of fruit are major factors influencing final sugar composition of papaya.