3 Overall Lossess

The major losses in post-harvest and production are dependent on many factors. Poor harvesting methods with immature crop product, disease- or pest-contaminated material, or rotten and damaged material, all encourage crop losses. There is a need to have facilities such as artificial driers and dry storage to minimise the problem of rainfall interrupting the crop drying. The consequences of poor drying and storage multiply into microbial invasion which can have disastrous results on the potential sale and can lead to rejection of the crop. Poor processing methods, creating damage, can lead to loss of quality and losses, while poor storage facilities can also lead to losses to pests and to quality. Failure to comply with legislative requirements at the port of entry can also lead to rejection of a consignment. The cost of these losses is progressively greater as the products move through the post-harvest chain. This is why it is important to keep information flowing with the marketplace so that an informed decision (such as, not to harvest a crop) can be made before investing in processing, packaging and transport.

Bearing these issues in mind, strategic marketing decisions can be made where a new crop may be targetted to an affluent urban market within the growing country in order to establish the industry securely. In some cases, marketing to an international supermarket chain within the growing country requires compliance with international export standards. Once the production and post-harvest system is established to meet these criteria, most of the barriers to growing for export have already been overcome.