Technologies increase cajá production in the Northeast by up to five times

The production of cajá (Spondias mombin L.), a fruit also known as taperebá, is beginning to gain momentum. In Piauí, a production system built with a technological package from Embrapa presents encouraging results. In one of the experiments, in Teresina, production, on six hectares, jumped from 3,4 tons in 2021 to 8,1 tons by March 21st of this year. “I believe we will harvest between 15 and 20 tons this harvest”, predicts producer João José Neto, project partner at the Tuturubá farm, in the northern rural area, 26,7 kilometers from the center of the capital of Piauí. The cajá harvest in the North and Northeast lasts until May.

JJ Neto's farm, as the 77-year-old retired civil engineer is better known, began planting cajaz trees in 2013. The first harvest took place in 2017, with a production of almost a ton. With Embrapa technologies being calibrated from September 2020, optimism took over the producer. “The decision to plant cajá came by chance, at the suggestion of a former employee. Now, with the high productivity, my idea is to transform the property into an agribusiness, also taking advantage of cashew, acerola and mango crops,” reveals José Neto. There is already a production of cajá pulp on site, prepared at home, sold at R$5,00 for a 500-gram package and at R$8,00 for a one-kilo package.

The excellent productive performance, according to the producer, is attributed to the fertiirrigation applied to the orchard. The work carried out by researcher Valdemício Ferreira de Sousa in the area followed technical criteria with dosages of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, via irrigation water and with an application frequency of 20 days. “Each experiment consists of 108 useful cajazeira plants planted at a spacing of ten meters by ten meters, in a total area of ​​3,20 hectares of the two experiments”, reports the researcher.

Telado guarantees the harvest

In the municipality of Água Branca, 97 kilometers north-central of Teresina, another partner in the project also stands out. Producer and agronomist Júlio César Lopes da Costa, aged 44, has been supporting the work by producing superior quality cajaz tree clones and in an experiment with screens. In this one, he is achieving a harvest of 100% of the production. “Without the screens, the crop failure was 40%,” he revealed.

Another encouraging fact about the Sambaíba site, which is just three kilometers from the center of the municipality, is that harvesting time is reduced by at least one hour and thirty minutes in rows of 20 plants. The screen in Sambaíba is 4,5 meters wide by 100 meters long between the rows of plants, suspended and tied to the tree trunks. In the south of Brazil, the use of screens, covering the plants, is mainly to protect the vineyards from the action of birds and hailstorms.

Costa's cajá production history is considered very good. Also on six hectares and working empirically, he recorded the numbers for the last four years, production, which in 2018 was eight tons, more than doubled in 2021, reaching 18 tons, and by March 21, 2022, the producer had already had harvested 15 tons. All production is sold to two agribusinesses in the municipality of Água Branca (PI), at R$ 1,70 per kilo.

The modeling of the caja production system is being carried out by a team of seven researchers from Embrapa Meio-Norte (PI), with actions such as selection of clones, irrigation management in the reproductive phase of the caja tree, identification of pests and diseases, definition the way of harvesting, evaluation of the root restriction of the plant, evaluation of defoliation in floral induction and establishment of doses of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium for production. Funded by the Piauí State Research Support Foundation (Fapepi), linked to the State Government, with a budget of R$400, the project will continue until 2024, according to researcher Eugênio Emérito Araújo, who coordinates the work.

More than 90% of the raw material comes from other states

The fruit pulp market in Piauí beckons with excitement for the project. “It was a great idea, as around 90% of the cajá demanded by the fruit pulp industries comes from abroad. It is a product with great popular acceptance, but sometimes its value comes up against it”, comments agro-industrialist Marcio Leonardo Ribeiro Teixeira, manager of the company Fruta Polpa, in Teresina.

With greater production, in his opinion, the industry could improve the quality of the pulp with a better supply of raw materials. The company currently processes between 620 and 650 tons of pulp per month. Of this total, 13% is made from cajá pulp. The production is also sold to the states of Maranhão, Ceará, Pará, Tocantins, Goiás and the Federal District. Teixeira says that Polpa Fruta buys raw materials mainly from the State of Bahia. In Teresina, a 500-gram package of cajá pulp sells out in supermarkets with prices ranging from R$5,40 to R$8,30. Piauí currently has ten agribusinesses processing fruit pulp.