Over the last decade, a significant amount of postharvest research has been undertaken. Concurrently techniques for research evaluation have been developed for the assessment of postharvest research. While some of the techniques have been applied in the evaluation of postharvest research related to other commodities, they have not been applied to tropical fruit postharvest research. Methods are reviewed for the economic evaluation of postharvest research; the use of these postharvest evaluation methods are illustrated using 6 postharvest tropical research projects as examples, and preliminary results are given on the potential gains from postharvest tropical fruit research. The 6 research projects were funded by ACIAR and collaborating institutions in Australia and Southeast Asia. Preliminary evaluations over a 30-year time horizon and with a discount rate of 8 percent per annum are given for the estimated economic benefits of the 6 collaborative research projects. The results are preliminary and indicative only and are dependent on the assumptions and data described in the paper. A discussion is included of data constraints in the evaluation of projects in this area.