Exploring the Unexplored in the Caribbean: Traditional and Emerging Fruit Crops in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti

Abstract

The Caribbean archipelago is a mosaic of languages, cultures, and cuisines, resulting in differential preferences regarding foods, including fruits. The relative importance of fruit crops in the Caribbean depends on their value as export crops and on their value in domestic markets. Several fruit crops were commercially important (with ups and downs) in many Caribbean islands throughout most of the 20 ^thcentury and even before, remaining important to date and possibly for decades to come. Other crops have been important in one or several islands, but not in the other islands of the Caribbean. This paper is a review of fruit crops, situations and tendencies in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.