Fruit rot disease control and storage life extension of jack fruit cv. Thongploy Praneet for exporting to China

Jackfruit is one of five fruits in Thailand (durian, mangosteen, longan, coconut and jackfruit) that export to China. Now a day, durian growers have been starting to grow jackfruit instead of durian because durian production has been facing with many problems such as insect pest infestation, diseases, highly required intensive practices, and also lack of the agricultural labors. Furthermore, the competitors of Thailand (such as Vietnam, Loas, Myanmar, Cambodia) are trying to improve the high quality of durian for export to China as well. The cost of durian production and agricultural labors is quite cheaper than Thailand including the distance of durian logistic transportation is shorter than Thailand. China growers also are trying to grow Durian in their country. From the above reasons, Thai growers are looking for the other tropical fruits which have the great potential and high value  to export, particularly easy to cultivation, low-cost production and least competitors. One of potential fruit is jackfruit. The major customers of Thailand for jackfruit are China, Vietnam, and Laos, respectively.  In 2019 and 2020, the export volumes of jackfruit are 45,319 and 49,006 tons which are converted to export values as 566 and 629 million baht respectively. At present, jackfruits are exported to China as the intact fresh fruit by the refrigerated trucks. When the fruit are arrived the destination, they are sold as the whole fruit and cut to be a big portion before wrapping with PVC film.

From the above information. The jackfruit growers of four community enterprises from Rayong and Phatalung provinces  are cooperated and establish Thai jackfruit association. The objectives of this association are to make the strengthen of group in term of crop production and markets of Thai jackfruit. They have also developed the new cultivars of jackfruit “Thong Ploy Praneet” for better qualities i.e. high yield, high ration of flesh : seeds and pericarp, small size of seeds, less latex, etc. This new cultivar jackfruits are now sold in wholesale markets and supermarket in Thailand as the whole fruit and fresh-cut product respectively. However, the community enterprises want to export jackfruit to China too. By the way, the community enterprises of jackfruit is now facing with the fruit rot diseases within 1-3 days after harvesting.

Postharvest disease control using fungicide has been known that it is high effective and rapid controls. But its residue is very harmful to the workers, consumers, and environment.  Chemical residues will be the obstacle for export, using safe technology for disease control is needed. And this technology should not give the negative effects on fresh produce and can extend the storage life of fresh produce too. Previous reports demonstrated that ozone treatment can control postharvest diseases of various fresh produce, i.e. sour rot of table grape, green mold disease of melon, fruit rot of orange, fruit rot of blueberry and apples. The inhibition mechanism of ozone on pathogens is by destroying the cell wall, the cell membrane of microbe, and directly affect on the enzymes and genetic materials of microorganisms.  Ozone also can induce the plant defense system and extend the shelf life of fresh produce by inhibiting the respiration rate, ethylene production, delaying color changes, water loss, and firmness in grape, orange, and fresh-cut durian. Thus, ozone fumigation on harvested jackfruit prior storage or transportation can help to reduce fruit rot disease development. So, the objective of this study is to investigate the effect of ozone treatment on fruit rot diseases and extending the storage life of jackfruit for exporting to China. The outcome of this research will benefit to the growers of Thai jackfruit association who wants to export jackfruit to China in near future.