GUAVA PRODUCTION AND VALUE ADDITION:

According to sources the under cultivation of guava is 58,500 hectares and the total production is 468,300 tonnes .it is grown in all four provinces of Pakistan. In Sindh it is grown in larkana and Hyderabad, Mirpur Khas, Neusheroferoz, Nawabshah and Khairpur. In Punjab it is mainly grown in Gujranwala, Lahore, Kasur, Sheikhupura, Sargodha, Jhang, Sangla Hills, while Haripur, Banu and Kohat are famous for its cultivation KPK. Pakistan ranks 2nd among guava producing Countries. Punjab is the major producer of guava in the country the total share of Punjab in its cultivation is 80% while rest of 20 % is contributed by all three provinces. In Sindh guava is the third largest fruit following mango and banana, Pakistan has great potential to produce best export quality guava and earn good foreign exchange. Guava has two harvesting season winter harvesting and summer harvesting ,it is of perishable nature so it is very important to market it immediately after harvesting in order to prevent fruit from post harvest losses.

GUAVA may be very tasty when eaten fresh but demand of value added products of guava is getting increase day by day in international markets .Generally preservation or processing or value addition is done to prevent the food item from the development of micro-organisms like (bacteria,mould,yeast etc) and to avoid spoilage during the storage, so the chemical and bio chemical changes that can be responsible for deterioration process can be controlled and by doing preservation it can be possible to prevent organoleptic characteristic like ( colour, flavour , aroma) from changes for certain period of time.

There are three very important factors should be considered to determine whether it is worth while or not are

The demand of guava pulp, juice and other value added products( it can be analyzed by doing survey or by having meeting with any post harvest technologist)

The quality of guava (raw material) i.e. whether it can withstand processing or value addition

Regular supply of raw material (guava)

for example a particular guava variety may be excellent to eat fresh but it is not necessarily good for processing or value addition because it requires frequent handling , high temperature and pressure.

Mango, pine apple or guava may be very tasty to eaten fresh is not necessary good for processing just because of variation in size, maturity, variety, and presence of large number of seeds can also be risk factor, more ever improper peeling of guava technically known as pericarp (external skin) is also risk factor, because it is bitter at early stages of maturity and ripening. While technically pulp is known as meso carp that is also known as fleshy part, meso carp is also bitter and hard at early stages if proper care is not taken during sorting, grading can be responsible for

lossess .it would not be suitable untill or unless large and regular supplies of guava are made available for value addition process. The biggest advantage for guava value added products is acidic nature of guava which prevents the growth of harmful micro organisms like clostridium botulinum.

To make value added products from guava it is very important to consider pre organise growth of guava, collection and transport for suitable raw material and to take assistance of post harvest technologist and HACCP (hazard analysis critical control point) expert.