Based on July figures newly released by Hawaii agriculture officials, state papaya utilization is running 2.81 million pounds a month, or 18 percent less than last year.

Year-to-date fresh sales were down more, 20 percent lower than the same 7-month period of 2003, because the barge strike affected inter-island farm cargo movement for a period of a couple weeks.

The state's 163 papaya growers got an estimated 41 cents per pound for fresh fruit in July, 11 percent (4 cents) higher than in June and 29 percent (9.2 cents) more than a year ago.

In its final report on 2003 papaya output, the Hawaii Agricultural Statistics put utilization for the full year at 42.6 million pounds, down 7 percent from 2002, mostly because of dry weather in the winter of 2002-2003. Only 10 percent of papaya acreage in Hawaii is irrigated.

The biotechnology variety Rainbow made up 44 percent of bearing acres in 2003, compared to 37 percent in 2002. Rainbow is resistant to Papaya Ringspot Virus, which devastated the Hawaii papaya industry from 1993 to 1999. But a major export market for Hawaii papaya growers is Japan, which won't accept Rainbow, so the Kapoho variety, while susceptible to PRV, remains a mainstay, comprising 41 percent of harvested acreage in 2003.

Papaya sales within the state, like all fruit sales, were depressed in 2003 by lower tourist arrivals and by the Oahu Transit Services strike, which hurt fruit sales in Honolulu's Chinatown, whose merchants rely heavily on people traveling by bus.

The state's harvested papaya acreage was pegged at 1,565 acres for 2003, 9 percent lower than 2002, and the lowest level since 1973. Fully 88 percent of the state's fresh papaya production came from the Big Island in 2003, up four points from 2002. Papaya farming is a $13 million a year industry in Hawaii.

The United States imported 239.6 million pounds in 2003, mostly from Mexico, Belize, and Brazil. World papaya production for 2003 is estimated at 13.98 billion pounds, with Brazil the largest producer at 3.5 billion pounds, following by Mexico at 2.1 billion pounds.