Papaya has become Fiji's most important fruit export commodity and offers the prospect of becoming a major industry. Many new growers are taking up papaya farming, but there is a lack of sound information with regards to production, harvest and postharvest issues. Consequently there are serious quality and consistency issues that threaten the long-term viability of the Fiji papaya industry. This project aims to address the immediate needs of the industry and to establish the framework to take the industry forward. Its primary aim is to substantially increase the contribution of fruit and vegetable exports to livelihoods of rural people in western Viti Levu. The expected outputs of the project include: a threefold increase in exports of papaya; a doubling of persons involved in the papaya industry; a 50% reduction in culled fruit from the farm; an increase in competitiveness of Fiji papaya on the export market through the use of sea freight. In Australia the papaya industry is undeveloped due to high levels of losses in the supermarket system and inconsistency of product flavour and fruit ripening behaviour. A project study will help to solve key research problems in the supply chain and to foster wide uptake of improvements by farmers and other supply chain members. An assured supply of good quality papaya should contribute to an improvement in the demand for higher quality tropical fruits both domestically and for export.