COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHERIMOYA (ANNONA CHERIMOLA MILL.) IN LATIN AMERICA

Commercial development of cherimoya will be impeded by numerous factors which will all have to be addressed. These factors include: (1) unfamiliarity with the crop by the general public; (2) lack of private, government and/or donor funds for crop production development, and subsequent marketing and promotion by producers; (3) limited production volume and season of availability; (4) financial risk for the entrepreneur both at production and retail level; (5) a still limited number of acceptable and/or broadly accepted cultivars or selections from the producers' and consumers' standpoints, due to (6) a lack of research into rustic but good quality cultivars; (7) lack of an enabling institutional socio-economic environment; (8) lack of pesticides and the recalcitrance of government regulators to assist in registering pesticides for a so-called minor crop; (9) reluctance of national policy makers to grant tax exemptions for producers willing to engage in new crop development. It is, however, felt that if and when official, private and non-governmental organisations and institutions collaborate on the different levels of research and development, there will indeed be a commercial future for cherimoya in Ecuador, Latin America and the world at large.

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