Overcoming phytosanitary obstacles
South African fruit must meet phytosanitary requirements to access certain key markets. How are these determined?
Ozone fumigation as a postharvest treatment
In a world demanding more from every harvest, ozone fumigation could help South African fruit growers to stay ahead. By Ilyaas Rhoda. Postharvest treatments are essential for meeting phytosanitary requirements and maintaining fruit quality during storage. However, the fruit industry…
Past research on packaging options
Past and present project. By Dawie Moelich and Anna Mouton. The Post-Harvest Innovation Programme and the Deciduous Fruit Producers’ Trust — now Hortgro — funded a project on internal packaging for Golden Delicious and Pink Lady apples, Bon Chrétien and…
Peach fruit fly
Whereas spotted-wing drosophila is the black sheep of an otherwise blameless family, the peach fruit fly is one of the Mafiosi of the insect world. By Anna Mouton. The peach fruit fly — Bactrocera zonata — shares a genus with…
PHYLA
Hortgro establishes a new phytosanitary laboratory to support market access. By Engela Duvenage. On 14 February 2022, the South African pome- and stone-fruit industry felt some love when construction began on the Phytosanitary Laboratory — PHYLA — in Stellenbosch. The…
Pick postharvest winners
Growers consider many factors when deciding which cultivars to plant — postharvest performance should be one of these. By Anna Mouton. Planting trends often follow fruit prices, observes Keith Bradley, general manager of Fruitways AgriServices. “People look at their returns…
Piecing together the packaging puzzle
Innovative packaging strategies can improve energy efficiency and space utilisation in shipping containers. By Anna Mouton. The South African deciduous-fruit industry is built on exports. But soaring shipping costs are squeezing profits while consumers question imported food’s green credentials. Could…
Post-harvest disease
Spores of decay-causing fungi are an ever-present threat to stone and pome fruit. Understanding exactly how the rot sets in can help growers prevent losses. By Anna Mouton. A post-harvest disease is any disease where the symptoms appear after harvest…
Postharvest disease management: a changing landscape
How is the Dutch pome-fruit industry responding to increasing restrictions on chemical postharvest disease control? By Anna Mouton. The Netherlands has approximately 6 000 hectares of apple orchards and 12 000 hectares of pear orchards. The dominant cultivars are Elstar apples and…
Postharvest performance of Lady in Red
What can physiological profiling tell us about this Cripps Pink mutation? By Anna Mouton. Apple growers are always on the lookout for new Cripps Pink strains that can deliver higher Class 1 pack-outs. Lady in Red is one such promising…