The Oriental Fruit Fly
The adult Oriental fruit fly is somewhat larger than a housefly, about 8 mm in length. The body color is variable but generally bright yellow with a dark "T" shaped marking on the abdomen. The wings are clear. The female has a pointed slender ovipositor to deposit eggs under the skin of host fruit. Eggs are minute cylinders laid in batches. The maggots (larvae) are creamy-white, legless, and may attain a length of 10 mm inside host fruit.
The Oriental fruit fly has been established in Hawaii since 1946 where it is a major pest of agriculture, particularly on mangoes, avocados and papayas. Maggots have been found in over 125 kinds of fruit and vegetables in Hawaii alone. A great number of crops in California are threatened by the introduction of this pest, including pears, plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, figs, citrus, tomatoes and avocados. It has been estimated that the cost of not eradicating Oriental fruit fly in California would range from $44 to $176 million in crop losses, additional pesticide use, and quarantine requirements.
Females lay eggs in groups of three to 30 under the skin of host fruits; the female can lay more than 1,000 eggs in her lifetime. Maggots tunnel through the fruit feeding on the pulp, shed their skins twice, and emerge through exit holes in approximately 10 days.
The larvae drop from the fruit and burrow two three cm into the soil to pupate. In 10 to 12 days, adults emerge from these puparia. The newly emerged adult females need eight to 12 days to mature sexually prior to egg laying. Breeding is continuous, with several annual generations. Adults live 90 days on the average and feed on honeydew, decaying fruit, plant nectar, bird dung and other substances. The adult is a strong flyer, recorded to travel 30 miles in search of food and sites to lay eggs. This ability allows the fly to infest new areas very quickly.
In excess of 230 fruits and vegetables have been attacked. Fruit that has been attacked may be unfit to eat as larvae tunnel through the flesh as they feed. Decay organisms enter, leaving the interior of the fruit a rotten mass.
California Co. buys Hawaii papaya operations | starbulletin.com | Business | /2008/05/21/
Calavo Growers is buying Hawaii Pride and Hawaiian Sweet
By Nina Wu
nwu@starbulletin.comCalavo Growers of California has acquired papaya and tropical-product packing and processing operations on the Big Island for between $10 million and $14 million.
Calavo Growers is buying Hawaiian Sweet Inc. and Hawaii Pride LLC from Calavo’s chairman, president and CEO Lee E. Cole.
The deal gives Calavo operations that pack an estimated 65 to 70 percent of all Hawaiian-grown papayas and 80 percent of Hawaii’s exports to the mainland.
Calavo, which got its start in avocados, also acquired 3,000 acres on the Big Island, in addition to two fresh-papaya packinghouses and cooling facilities, and papaya and guava puree operations.
The acquisition comes on the heels of Calavo’s deal with Maui Pineapple Company Ltd. to sell, market and distribute its Maui Gold fresh product throughout the continental U.S. and Canada in December.
Calavo, which presently ships about 200,000 pounds of fresh papayas to the mainland per week, believes there is plenty of room for growth. Since 1949, the company has sold and marketed Hawaiian papayas, which continued after Cole’s acquisition of Hawaiian Sweet in the early 1990s.
"Calavo transitions from simply being paid a commission on its papaya sales to collecting full margin based on its ownership of the papaya and tropical-product operations," said Calavo chief operating officer Arthur J. Bruno. "We are confident that our company’s depth of financial and operational resources, along with a growing position in the tropical-produce category, can propel these acquired assets to the next level."
Bruno said the company anticipates increasing the earnings of both Hawaiian Sweet and Hawaiian Pride, including more than $8 million in tangible assets from the collective packing and processing facilities and agricultural land, he said
California Co. buys Hawaii papaya operations | starbulletin.com | Business | /2008/05/21/
Calavo Growers, Inc. Comments on the Significance of Maui Pineapple Company Ltd. Distribution Agreement – Business News – redOrbit
Calavo Growers, Inc. (Nasdaq:CVGW), a worldwide leader in packing and distributing of fresh and processed avocados and other perishable food products, today commented on the strategic benefits it anticipates from the addition of Maui Gold® pineapples to its distribution system.
On Nov. 2, 2007, Maui Land and Pineapple Co. (AMEX:MLP) announced that its agricultural subsidiary, Maui Pineapple Company Ltd., entered into an agreement with Calavo. Under terms of that agreement, beginning Dec. 1, 2007, Calavo will sell, market and distribute Maui Pineapple Company’s Maui Gold fresh product throughout the continental United States and Canada.
The following is a statement from Calavo Chairman, President and CEO Lee E. Cole on the favorable implications of the agreement for the company:
"Our agreement with Maui Pineapple Company is significant on many levels–strategic, operational and financial.
"First, we anticipate that sales of Maui Gold fresh pineapples will contribute $25-30 million in revenues to Calavo’s top line in fiscal 2008, as well as become immediately accretive to earnings.
"Second, the addition of Maui Gold pineapples to our fresh-product lineup is a strong, natural complement to Calavo’s market leadership in Hawaiian-grown Kapoho Solo papayas. In addition, we sell a range of other tropical-produce offerings from the islands. I am confident to say that, through this significant expansion into the pineapple category, Calavo will immediately become the largest distributor and marketer of fresh commodity produce grown in Hawaii, and am duly proud of the company’s economic contribution to the islands.