Carambola production, processing and marketing in Malaysia
1989
Bin-Ngah, A.W. | Ahmad, I. | Hassan, A. (Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia))
Carambola has been grown in Malaysia by smallholders in small acreages over a wide range of environment until recently when commercial cultivation has taken place. During the last few years, interest in the large scale cultivation of carambola due to increased demand for export has resulted in substantial increase in the acreage of carambola grown. The traditional export market for carambola from Malaysia has been to Singapore and Hong Kong but lately new markets have been developed in Europe and the Middle East. In 1988 a total of 13,022 mt has been exported with a value of M$14.7 million. It has been estimated that the export volume would increase to 20,000 mt in 1992. Three commercial varieties i.e. B2, B10 and B17 are popularly grown mostly from grafted planting materials using appropriate cultural management practices. Good pest and disease management practices have been emphasised especially in the control of fruit flies, the major pest of carambola. Pruning of the trees has been practised to facilitate bagging and harvesting of the fruits. Yield of carambola increases with age from second year to the 9th year ranging from about 6 mt ha**-1 year**-1 to about 60 mt ha**-1 year**-1. The harvest indices of carambola are identified. Techniques of infield handling, grading, packaging, transportation and storage have been developed for the export of carambola. Fruits are normally packed using CFB, usually stored at 5 - 10 deg.C with relative humidity of 85 - 90% for long distance transportation.
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