Reducing Postharvest Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
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The FAO and AfDB’s Framework Paper on Postharvest Loss Reduction in Africa (2009 )
highlights three types of generic issues relating to fruit and vegetable postharvest losses,
caused by their soft texture and high moisture content, which makes them susceptible to
postharvest losses which are categorised as follows:
• Mechanical injury, which can occur at any stage from the field to market, including
during harvesting, packing, storage and transporting;
• Pathological damage caused by invasion of bacteria and fungi, often associated with
physical injuries;
• Physiological deterioration due to natural ripening and senescence processes which
are influenced by temperature and humidity, so that produce that is packed or
transported without cooling or adequate ventilation will quickly become unusable.
Such injury and damage generally leads to economic losses as the produce reduces in value
and nutritional content. However, some market uses may be found for such produce and some
revenue obtained. The short natural ripening period frequently leads to physical and financial
losses when gluts of produce occur due to farmers planting the same varieties of crop that
mature at the same period without having investigated and ensured markets for their produce.
In the OIC Member Countries traditional marketing systems, including urban wholesale
markets, continue to play a dominant role in fresh fruit and vegetable marketing. Trading
tends to be done through informal trading systems and farmers tend to have limited
knowledge of prices and quantities and qualities demanded.
In some countries, particularly in big cities, supermarket chains are increasingly important as
buyers of fresh produce and opt for direct procurement systems via contract farming or use
category managers - buying companies that supply supermarkets with particular product
categories.
Physical losses can occur throughout the supply chain arising from inherent difficulty of
collecting and transporting small quantities of produce from numerous small farms, and trying
to assemble them into a large enough quantity for efficient domestic marketing; lack of
knowledge, equipment and appropriate technologies; lack of integrated management systems,
poor supply chain infrastructure; access to service providers and advisory support from the
public sector; and weak communication between producers, traders and receivers (FAO and
AfDB, 2009).
Key causes of postharvest losses include inappropriate harvesting periods, lack of appropriate
harvesting containers, excessive field heat and lack of on-farm storage facilities and
inappropriate packaging materials.
In all the publications investigated there was virtually no information on actual produce losses.
However, considerable research is undertaken in the 58 countries into ways to reduce
postharvest losses, such as through plant breeding, use of controlled atmosphere storage trials,
improved packaging and so on.
Methodological issues
The FAO and AfDB (2009) report highlights that though the causes of losses may be readily
apparent, the complexity and heterogeneity within the marketing systems for fruit and
vegetables makes it difficult to quantify the postharvest losses (PHL). Some estimates given
include an average range of 15 to 44%. Courtbaoui and Ngadi (2016), based on their