Papaya production in the United States is relatively low key when compared to the larger producers. All the plantations are located in the state of Hawaii . According to national statistics the area used for cultivation of papaya in Hawaii in 2011 was just over 800 ha, of which 526 ha of papaya plants were harvested.2,21,22 So with a yield of 24.7 tonnes per ha Hawaii produced nearly 13,000 tonnes of papaya in 2011. These figures indicate that the United States has just a 0.1% share of global papaya production. Despite its small scale the papaya is still very important to farmers in Hawaii where it is the fifth largest local crop. In 2011 Hawaii had 172 papaya growers, which gives an average of 4.7 ha per company.21
PRSV was discovered on Hawaii around 1945 on the island of Oahu, at that time the most important papaya producing region in Hawaii .3 Five years later the production on Oahu was transferred to the Puna region of the main island Hawaii , where there was as yet no commercial papaya production, but also no known cases of PRSV. The area used for papaya cultivation grew steadily from 26 ha in 1960 to 910 ha in 1990. This was in strong contrast to the infected island Oahu, where the papaya acreage decreased from 200 ha in 1940 to just 20 ha in 1990.3