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Season calendar

Papaya season by country

Papayas ship year-round from Brazil, Costa Rica and Colombia. What that means for planning, and what the fruit needs in transit.

In season all year across Brazil and Costa Rica — some origin is at peak in every month.

Papaya export calendar: which origin ships in which month.
Origin January February March April May June July August September October November December
Brazil January: Peak February: Peak March: Peak April: Peak May: Peak June: Peak July: Peak August: Peak September: Peak October: Peak November: Peak December: Peak
Costa Rica January: Peak February: Peak March: Peak April: Peak May: Peak June: Peak July: Peak August: Peak September: Peak October: Peak November: Peak December: Peak
Peak — shipping in volume Shoulder — opening or closing Export windows out of the origin, not arrival weeks. Add the lane's transit.

Last reviewed August 2026. Windows are editorial ranges for a normal year, not a published schedule, and they are export weeks out of the origin rather than arrival weeks in your market.

Papaya has no season. Brazil, Costa Rica and Colombia all harvest continuously, and the calendar below shows year-round bands because that is the honest answer.

What papaya does have is one of the narrowest transit tolerances of any fruit that moves by sea. It is picked at colour break, it ripens on the way, and both a slow voyage and a cold setpoint ruin it in different ways. Most of the long-haul trade still flies for that reason; the sea programmes that work are the short ones, out of Brazil’s north-eastern ports and Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.

Brazil

Ships year-round Varieties: Formosa, Golden Load ports: Pecém, Natal, Salvador, and Santos

Year-round out of Espírito Santo and Bahia. Papaya is harvested continuously and shipped against programmes, so there is no window to plan around.

What there is instead is a very narrow transit tolerance. Papaya is picked at colour break and ripens on the way, so a slow voyage overshoots and a cold setpoint stops it dead. The short run from Brazil’s north-eastern ports is what makes a sea programme possible at all.

Everything Brazil ships, month by month

Costa Rica

Ships year-round Load ports: Moín and Caldera

Year-round, at modest volume. Costa Rican papaya mostly serves North America, where the short lane makes the fruit’s narrow transit tolerance manageable.

Sea programmes into Europe exist but are small: the voyage is at the edge of what papaya picked at colour break will survive, and most European volume still arrives by air.

Everything Costa Rica ships, month by month

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The same origins also ship

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