Postharvest quality and safety management of organically-grown fruits and vegetables

The newly developing organic industry of the country is faced with the challenge of delivering organically-grown fruits and vegetables that have same safety, quality and shelf-life as their conventionally-grown counterparts. The project is thus implemented to develop technologies for maintaining the quality and insuring safety of organically-grown fruits and vegetables during harvesting, postharvest handling, storage and marketing. In general, the supply/value chain for organically-grown fruits and vegetables is very simple, characterized by a short chain with few players. Except for seeds (mostly highland vegetables) and the greenhouse or plastic house supplies which were source-out from commercial input suppliers, the rest of the inputs utilized in organic farming such as bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticides were produced, prepared or concocted by the growers themselves. The cultural management practices were more or less similar in all the project sites. Postharvest and marketing practices are also very simple. Growers and grower-traders do minimal sorting, trimming and packaging, and, marketing is direct to customers or final consumers. The latter is done at the farm or in weekend or organic specialty markets, or channeled to retailers such as in supermarket or wet market stallholders. The weekend organic market usually operates only once a week either half or whole day, and the unsold fresh produce are brought home by the grower-traders. A survey of consumer preferences was the next activity after the supply chain documentation. This was done to ensure that the improvements made would address consumer or market needs and wants. Consumers perceived organic produce as safe to eat, free from pesticides and nutritious too. The qualities looked for when buying fresh produce are freshness, cleanliness and the absence of damage either physical, mechanical injuries or decay. Postharvest technology researches therefore focused on: 1. determining safety of the produce from microbial contaminants (determination of chemical or pesticide contaminants was not included) along the various points in the supply chain; 2. physico-chemical characterization and determination of quality changes of organically-grown produce, which were also compared with conventionally-grown counterparts; 3. maintaining the freshness of the produce and extending shelf-life (MAP, organic acids for disease control, packaging, ripening); and, 4. minimizing postharvest disease. The results in the form of new information or technology protocol(s) which were generated from the above researches were then translated to information education and communication material (IEC) and disseminated or shared with the actors, both the direct and indirect players of the organic fruit and vegetables supply chain namely, the growers or organic practitioners, agricultural technicians, fellow researchers and other industry players. Four technical papers were presented as oral papers in three scientific conferences, two local and one international. One was published in an international journal as proceedings. Three poster papers were also presented in scientific conference here and abroad. One technical bulletin on postharvest handling techniques for organic fruits and vegetables, and two extension flyers on evaporative cooling were also prepared and printed for dissemination to industry stakeholders. Before the project ended in September, an additional 2 technical papers were prepared and accepted for presentation to the ISAAS International Congress in November 5-7, 2016 to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam. Eight awareness training or capability building program on postharvest handling or organically-grown fruits and vegetables were provided to organic practitioners in response to the need of the industry. Most of these were in cooperation with the municipal LGU's through the agriculture office. One training programs was conducted with Alter Trade Corporation, the project cooperator in the conduct of postharvest research on organic banana. A training manual was also prepared based on the training programs conducted. Evaporative cooler crates and an upscale design were provided by the project to selected vegetable producers and traders, and growers' association, who also served as co-operators of the project. While there were a number of postharvest researches conducted during the project duration, more researches still need to be done and optimized on organic fresh fruits and vegetables. The changing climate greatly affects organic production and consequently the availability of supply became the limiting factor in the conduct of research during the span of the project. Moreover, other organic production systems in Luzon and outside of Luzon area, and the many other types of fresh fruits and vegetables grown organically have yet to be studied.