Sapodilla is a climacteric fruit that requires careful handling after harvest in order to maintain quality,extend shelf life and allow transport to markets outside the area of production. If this can be achieved, sapodillas, together with other tropical fruits, could potentially become known in other areas. The use of controlled/modified atmospheres and other methods of preservation become important when dealing with highly perishable produce such as sapodilla fruit. Storage temperature is another key factor in conserving sapodillas, since these fruit are chilling sensitive and special care must be taken when cold storage is used. Finally, the presence of fruit at different stages of development on the tree makes it difficult to determine the optimum harvesting time, and therefore it is necessary to develop appropriate maturity indices that would facilitate the identification of fruit ready to be harvested. This would increase homogeneity of fruit quality.