The trainer shows the importance of adequate post-harvest handling of fresh fruits and vegetables, pointing out the physiological processes of quality loss and their causes. The trainer makes recommendations and proposes post-harvest technologies that maintain quality (Presentation 3.2).

The theoretical foundations lead to a brainstorm to:

Reference Material 3.5 assists the trainer in focusing the conclusions.

Participants, in teams, define the strengths and weaknesses to channel detected market opportunities using the worksheet (Material 3.6). Results are discussed in a plenary session and the teams answer:

The trainer concludes, commenting on the importance of the ongoing commitment of all players and the supporting institutions in making post-harvest technology a tool to update and create opportunities in the horticultural sector and to ensure quality and safety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The positive developments in horticulture in several Latin American countries in the last decades in Chile, and more recently in Mexico and Brazil, result from comparative advantages, a suitable institutional frame and favourable internal and external conditions. On the other hand, the incorporation of technological innovations opened new prospects for production and exports (Trejo, 1997). The contribution of post-harvest technologies (e.g. advances in maritime transport) has also been significant in developed countries (the USA), allowing produce to reach foreign ports in less time, with the same quality and at reduced costs.

Trejo points out that Chilean horticulture, as long as it did not incorporate technological advances in production, in harvest and in post-harvest, remained far from the foreign markets trading circuits and with quality problems preventing its access to distribution channels.

Technological innovation in the production of quality fruits and vegetables

The role of technology is vital in production, harvest and post-harvest processes. Technology applied to production aims at obtaining produce with a certain quality, with all peripheral actions pooled to preserve, maintain and upgrade/maximize the quality attributes of the produce obtained.

Production technologies rendering possible different varieties, more diversified produce, improved yields, reduced quality losses from pathogens, using fewer chemicals and improved nutritional value are essential for a more dynamic offer of fresh produce.

Genetic engineering exemplifies how technology contributes to improving quality of carrots and tomatoes with higher contents of carotenoids and vitamin A; of melons with higher contents of sugar; and pineapples with higher levels of ascorbic acid, carotenoids and sugars.

Seen from post-harvest, genetic engineering has resulted in varieties of tomatoes and onions with longer post-harvest lives.

Once quality is obtained, concerns shifts to post-harvest processes and marketing logistics to maintain the quality and safety of fresh produce.

Optimization of the logistic process through post-harvest technology

Logistics works for the client. From a logistical standpoint, efficiency means delivery to meet the client's specifications.

Logistics entails transporting produce produced under good quality conditions and delivering this produce with good quality, in the required time and with optimized costs. With low quality produce, no matter how efficient logistics may be, the customer gets poor quality.

Some technological advances in post-harvesting have resulted in significant gains in logistics: for example improvements in transport allowed exports of fruits with special temperatures and humidity in standardized packages, resulting in increased amounts being shipped. Time involved in logistics has also been reduced, resulting in higher efficiency in selection, classification and optimization of loading and unloading.

Reduced times and more efficient operations result in quality produce reaching the consumer.

Post-harvest technology is essential to maintain quality and safety of horticultural produce

The perishable condition of fresh fruits and vegetables calls for specific handling of produce once harvested and for additional precautions resulting from the higher susceptibility to both qualitative and quantitative losses. The former, harder to assess than quantitative losses, result in losses of nutritional and caloric values and, in general, in acceptability by the consumers. Post-harvest losses, depending on the produce and the way it is handled, may vary widely. Some estimates conclude that one-third of the world production of horticultural produce is not consumed*.

Therefore, innovations are fundamental for maintenance of quality and safety during post-harvest, with objective harvest indices, optimization of harvesting techniques and tools, optimization of more functional selections, classification and packaging systems, fast cooling systems, standardization of packaging, improving the cold storage systems and transport of produce protected with canvas and thermal tents.

For example, post-harvest treatments to reduce water losses, such as curing, waxing or plastic films; use of 1-MCP to reduce ethylene spoilage; use of hot water and steam for fungi and plant diseases are opportunities provided by post-harvest technologies to maintain quality and safety throughout the chain.

^*The Role of Postharvest Management in Assuring The Quality and Safety of Horticultural Crops. Documento Borrador. (Kadel, A. Rolle, R. 2003).

Post-harvest technology as a tool to access up-grade markets

Post-harvest technology is a tool allowing access of horticulture produce to diversified import markets. Phitosanitary problems, such as the fruit flea, preclude many export products from developing countries to access developed markets. Appropriate quarentenary post-harvest procedures such as refrigeration, steam treatments, hot water treatments and even irradiation, however, open new opportunities.

In the 1950s, advances in transport, permitting larger volumes of produce to be placed in far away markets, expanded trade. More recently, new opportunities were opened by modified atmospheres (combining often, not only control systems for CO2, Oxygen and Nitrogen, but systems to monitor levels of relative humidity and ethylene), essential in the maturation and senescence of fresh fruits and vegetables, extended post-harvest life by reducing the influence of factors associated in producing decay.

The increasing adoption of safety standards and regulations by importing markets is coupled with important advances in reducing microbiological contamination, for example: use of ozone as post-harvest treatment for vegetables, increasing efficiency in water disinfectants in post-harvest processing, research in irradiation to reduce risks of microbiological contamination, etc. These technologies open new trade opportunities.

Post-harvest technology as a tool for product differentiation

With increasing competitive and concentrated markets, more important becomes the introduction of systems and technologies to manufacture produce differentiated by their presentation for positioning in these markets.

Each year, the USA market has more than 20 000 new products. An average store handles more than 5 000 products, with more than 500 in fruits and vegetables alone. Producing differentiated products is made clear by customers allowing only one-eighth of a second of their time for each product (Robbins, 2002). Innovations from vacuum packaging, modified atmospheres, controlled atmospheres, pasteurization, post pasteurization and sterilization contribute to differentiate the product, maintain quality and safety and offer longer post-harvest lives, all essential requisites to access high-value markets.

Conclusions

The production of high quality fruits and vegetables and the maintenance and enhancement of this quality in post-harvest and distribution operations is associated with careful incorporation of technologies applied throughout the production, harvesting and post-harvesting stages. These technologies are crucial to ensure quality and safety. For small-scale producers, or when ready supplies of water and electricity are not available, simple alternative solutions should be considered. The principle is not to use sophisticated technologies, but to handle efficiently the produce throughout the chain. Only in this way will quality and safety be maintained and post-harvest losses be reduced.

These concerted efforts to use post-harvest technologies result in internationally competitive horticultural produce, traded in markets requiring continuous innovations and comparative advantages.