**2. Area and production**

Tamarillo popularly known as arboreal tomato [5] is a fruit tree of Andean origin and is currently grown in California, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and New Zealand [6] for use in the fresh fruit market and for food processing industry. Tamarillo is also produced less widely in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Sri Lanka and India [7, 8]. The fruit's distinctive flavor and nutritional benefits are causing an uptick in interest today [9], which is keeping prices high. New Zealand and the United States have developed extensive plant breeding programmes to develop new cultivars that are more appealing to customers [10]. In Colombia, tamarillo orchards cover a total cultivated area of 7646 ha distributed in 18 provinces. However, Antioquia and Cundinamarca alone account for two-thirds of the total production (50 and 14%, respectively) [7]. In New Zealand about 2000 tons are produced on 200 ha of land and exported to the United States, Japan and Europe. New Zealand's horticultural practices, handling, storage, and transportation methods have all been enhanced via research there. Some better cultivars and shipping containers and circumstances for overseas exports have resulted from these investigations. This crop is limited by factors such as a lack of clear differentiation among varieties, low fruit quality (heterogeneity and phytosanitary issues), the use of ineffective local and foreign variety substitutions, and the fact that the tree tomato is frequently a subsistence crop and not included in genetic conservation programmes.
