Jackfruit (JF) Festival In Florida

It is interesting to note that there is a JF festival in Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in Florida. It seems that this is ONLY  JF festival in the US.
The webpage describes as below ;

When: Saturday, September 13, 2014 from 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM

When: Saturday, September 13, 2014 9:30 AM to Saturday, September 13, 2014 4:30 PM

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden will celebrate one of the most intriguing of tropical fruits, the jackfruit. Participants will learn about its enticing taste and curious fragrance, how to grow it, and what varieties most suit differing tastes.

We will have recognized speakers presenting information on planting and pruning, pollination and the variety of cultivars available in South Florida. Tree sales and cultivar tasting follows the presentations.

Lectures

10:00 a.m.             Pioneering the Introduction of Jackfruit in Florida
                                Dr. Richard J. Campbell, FTBG

10:45 a.m.             A new Generation of Jackfruit
                                (Jackfruit Breeding at FTBG)
                                Noris Ledesma, FTBG

11:30 a.m.             The Jackfruit as a Tradition in Asia
                                TBD

12:15 p.m.             Jackfruit Cooking Demonstration
                                Chef Allen Susser     

1:00 p.m.               Drying jackfruit
                                Leila Werner, FTBG

1:45 p.m.             Grafting jackfruit
                              Todd Walton, FTBG

2:30 p.m.             Caring for your jackfruit tree
                              Jeff Wasielewski, Miami Dade Cooperative Extension Service

Tropical Fruit Program volunteers clean and evaluate jackfruit during the jackfruit season. Flesh from each cultivar is carefully labeled and frozen for sampling. Following the ‘Just Jackfruit' lectures participants will taste fruit from a wide range of flavors. 

For more info please browse at http://www.fairchildgarden.org/Events/?date=09-2014&eventID=965

Post Harvest Losses in Jackfruits

In tropical countries post harvest losses (PHL) of agricultural products is high; it could be 30 to 40 percents. To date in jackfruits had PHL amount to about 30% which occurred at value- chain levels. This is mainly due climatic, agromanagement practices and post handling per se.

1.Production

a)      Agronomy

                                   i.            Climate monitoring

                                 ii.            Irrigation

b)      Pest and Disease

                              i.            Fruit rot

               ii      Physiological disorders

2.Maturity

a)      Specific maturity index

b)      Maturity based on degree days, rainfall – affected by weather

c)      Physical  Determination of maturity 

3.          In field handling

a) Harvesting technique

b) Bagging 

4.     In field transportation

5.       Packinghouse operation

      Sorting, cleaning, grading, packaging

      Storage and Ripening

6.   Distribution and marketing

Domestic 

        Export

7.       Value added

   Minimally processed,Processed product

8.Waste management

9.Awareness.

Jackfruit chips give value added products.

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