Commercial sales of the fruit.
Pawpaws occasionally find their way to market. In Charleston, Parkersburg, and some other West Virginia cities, pawpaws are sold in farmers markets for $1.39/kg ($0.99/quart); sales are modest (Thomson, 1985). An infrequent outlet are organic food stores (Thomson, 1985). The Michigan Marketing Association supplied a few select restaurants in 1989 with 30-36 kg of pawpaws, at a delivered price of $11/kg (Christopher Steele, pers. comm.).
In all instances, the pawpaws for sale were gathered from the wild or from home grown trees. The author knows of no instance in the U.S.A. where pawpaws are cultivated in commercial orchard fashion, although he has received inquiries about its possibilities. In Italy, France, and Australia several growers have trial orchards (Giovanni Bubani, Domenico Montanari, Peter Taverna, pers. comm.). In 1988, James Flore, professor of horticulture at Michigan State University, discovered pawpaws being sold as papaya (!) in a grocery in London, England, for nearly $8/kg (pers. comm.). The origin of those fruits is unknown.
The greatest consumption of pawpaws is from fruits gathered in the wild or from trees grown for personal use. The quantity of pawpaws consumed is unknown. However, the number of people growing pawpaws for home consumption seems to be steady and slowly growing, judging from the sales of mail-order pawpaw trees. Knowledgeful nurseries have begun to pay strict attention to the stringent transplant requirements of pawpaws, thereby assuring transplant success. F. W. Schumacher Co., a tree seed supply company, reports that "the prospects for pawpaw seed are very good; the industry as a whole is moving towards native plants, with a strong undercurrent of interest in edible plants." It is difficult to gauge overall industry demand. Schumacher is the largest supplier of pawpaw seed, with annual purchase around 50 kg at a price for improved seed of $26-33/kg. Assuming 750 seed per kg (representative of seed from the University of Maryland collection at Wye) and a 70% germination/survival rate, 50 kg of seed establishes a minimum national annual production of about 25,000 trees.
The pawpaw has been shown to have high nutritional quality (Table 2), especially as compared to typical temperate fruits such as apple and peach (Peterson et al., 1982).
1 Raw unpeccled fruit (Peterson et al., 1982).
2 Raw unpeeled fruit (Gebhardt et al., 1982; Matthews et al., 1987).
3 Gm/100 gm edible portion.
Kcal/100 g in edible portion.
Mg/100 g m edible portion.
1 IU/100 gm edible portion.
Percent composition of lipids and protein.
579