Native Fruit Tree Improvement in Amazonia: An Overview - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 108

Natural populations of camu-camu occur most often along the edges of
black-water rivers throughout the Amazon Basin and into the Orinoco Basin.
Sometimes it is found along white-water rivers, but in this case generally in
oxbow lakes and abandoned channels where sediments are not so abundant.
In these riverside environments, plants are subject to inundation during the
annual cycle of flooding, and will be partially or totally immersed for
4-6 months. In the upper reaches of the tributaries, flooding may occur several
times during the rainy season and appears to have a favourable effect on
ascorbic acid production. Fruit ripening occurs during the period of rising
waters, and ripe fruit are generally harvested from canoes or left for the fish,
many of which depend on camu-camu. Until the high ascorbic acid content
was identified, camu-camu was seldom used as human food. Roraima, Brazil,
is an exception, as the peasants along the rivers consider caçarí a popular juice.
Once the high ascorbic acid content was identified in Peru, a development
programme was designed and put into practice, with ecological, agronomic,
genetic and processing studies to add value (Pinedo, 2004). One of the first
initiatives was to cultivate camu-camu on the 'restingas', the high beaches
formed by deposition of sediments during flooding, because this was found to
reduce the seasonality of the crop, making fruit available nearly year-round.
The first 'restinga' trials were established in 1980 near Iquitos, Peru, through
collaboration between the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias (INIA:
National Agrarian Research Institute) and the Instituto Veterinario de
Investigación de Trópicos y de Altura (IVITA: Tropical and Mountain Veterinary
Research Institute). In 1991, inviting 'restinga' farmers to participate actively in
the agronomic and genetic trials enriched the research process. Initially, seven
producers in the Santa Ana Community (Amazonas River) participated. This
number expanded to 28 producers in six communities in 1994, and to 4000
producers in 150 communities in the Departments of Loreto and Ucayali in
1997, as a political decision by the Secretariats of Agriculture to encourage
camu-camu production. These 4000 producers manage natural populations
and have started planting orchards on 'restingas'.
Peru started to export frozen pulp to Japan in 1995, with most of the
production obtained from natural populations. From 1995 to 2000, exports
expanded gradually, but were interrupted for 3 years (Pinedo and Jong, 2004).
In 2004, exports were reinitiated and in the 2005-2006 harvest season
attained a FOB value of US$1.1 million, of which 93% went to Japan. At
present, the following export products have low added value: frozen, clarified
and concentrated pulp. The internal market is relatively small, although
numerous products are now available, including yogurt, nectar and juices that
mix camu-camu with other fruits.
The Peruvian improvement programme
The Peruvian development programme was created to transform camu-camu's
ascorbic acid potential into a lucrative market for small farmers given
preliminary demand from developed countries. The first decision was to
concentrate on Myrciaria dubia rather than Myrciaria floribunda O. Berg, as the