Article writing requests…
I often receive requests on my desk to see what I could contribute to articles on how to be a successful importer or exporter and the role that refrigeration plays in the import/export process.
That request hosts an enormous potential for a lot of people who will know a lot on particular parts of that subject, and I will gladly leave that part to them.
My part and contribution are simple as they oversee on the postharvest process, -treatment and Cold Chain. All of this has been documented worldwide in thousands of research publications.
Of course, refrigeration plays a significant role in the process of handling perishables without a doubt and that is a fact, however important parts are forgotten, where three issues come to the fore:
· Nature never ever breaks her own laws
· Preserving quality after harvest does not come by chance and
· Attention to detail
To discuss these issues, I am afraid that I will have to burst some bubbles. But so be it, as these issues must not just be exposed, they must also be addressed if South Africa wants to keep competing with the best in the world.
If you want to be the best, the only parameter which will survive us all, is quality of the product you sell. As you all know, the best quality of a commodity is, or should be, present when the farm harvests. That is, of course, a prime prerequisite. Simple.
All to often you hear of “QC’s” that report damage, and most of the time they are the result of the lack of attention to the postharvest process’ and keeping the Cold Chain correct. Here I want to point a first finger; it is of no use that both farm and importer or exporter sit on the sideline and let things happen.
Both have a responsibility to do it right every time. All the buyer is looking for, or rather should be looking for, is a quality product.
If that is not taken care off, the rest is all zero and void. By the time the farmers cut the umbilical cord of the commodity; the process gets critical.
Here again, mother nature never ever breaks her own laws. The tree, vine or plant will have looked to the best of its ability after his or her offspring.
The whole postharvest process needs to get looked upon and the Cold Chain needs’ attention.
The time of harvest is important, the process and timing until it gets under precooling, the humidity, the airborne bacteria removal and ethylene control, the packhouse circumstances, the final correct packaging and cooling, the correct overall cooling, the correct transport, the capacities to store the cooled goods at the point of shipping, delays in the process’, containers correct temperature controls etc. are all critical points where attention to detail needs to be exercised.
You can grow the best possible product, which most of our farmers do, that is only 95% of the job done. The other 5% generate 99% of your income…
All too often you get reports back where somewhere in the process something went horribly wrong.
When cooling pallets with product, the idea and final goal is that ALL the products are cooled uniformly. To get that right the airflow in the cartons need a holistic approach.
I’ve been saying this for over 20 years and I’m not getting involved in the structural design of any carton manufacturer, but as an industry we should come together and agree on a universal airflow design in the box, no matter who sells which carton, at least you would have the correct airflow pattern in the boxes where, even if they do come together in a central cooling facility, the airflow wouldn’t be affected.
It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to “release a pallet” ready for export on one side of a pallet where the whole industry knows the temperature will be the coldest and where the whole industry knows that the other side is totally out of sync with that so called “correct temperature.” And that is a problem that is there because of the absolute lack of carton airflow design and the desire to chase against time. The commodities will give temperature fluctuations during the container trip overseas with devastating negative results.
The temperatures need to be better controlled, i.e., temperature fluctuations in big cold rooms where air gets mixed and eventually creates condensation
It is no use that a refrigerated container gets switched off when it leaves the farm and must travel a long distance to whatever harbor it does get loaded on a ship…
Postharvest mistreatment results in damages and they are cumulative and will show up eventually, loss of quality always being the case. Shortcuts will bite you and it will be a heavy bite.
Problem is that most people in the industry keep on doing the same things year after year hoping they will get a different result. You do not. Nature never ever breaks her own laws remember… And Einstein said it long ago; if you keep on doing this, you are insane.
It is time the industry start coming together fast as we are discussing these issues for nearly 60 years and there is extraordinarily little movement in the right direction. That is literally past “donkey years.” If you manage to get a perfect Cold Chain, which should be feasible if the industry gets their noses in the right direction, your quality will arrive overseas just as you grew it at home on the farm.
Will you get more money if you do it right? I am not a magician and cannot guarantee that to you, what I can guarantee is that your buyer will come back year after year seeking for your quality.
Mess it up and that will not be the case. Time to start looking a root cause analysis’ and tackle the roots of the problems rather than chasing the symptoms.
And then all parties involved will have a win-win2 situation. In order to show our commitment to the industry, you can drop us an email on info@humiditas.com with some more details on your operations in order to see where we can assist, and we’ll send you the USDA Handbook 66 in e-format, 792 pages of postharvest info, absolutely free.
