Reducing Postharvest Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
74
Table 36: Constraints to reducing PHLs reported for fruits and vegetables and per step of
postharvest.
Postharvest
step
Grapes Mangoes, mangosteens,
guavas
Tomatoes Other fruits
Harvesting -  Harvest at appropriate
level of maturity with
respect to market
 Lack of education and access
to training
 Poor timing and facilities
 Knowledge of
techniques and
maturity indices
 Lack of
knowledge
 Lack of fruit
varieties that are
handier for
transport.
Storage  Storage
facilities
and
temperatur
e
manageme
nt
 Proper cold storage
infrastructure with basics
of refrigeration
 Lack of access to appropriate
storage facilities and
inadequate storage facility:
farmers are resource poor
cannot afford to get storage
facility, bad/poor electricity
generation to power such
storage facility, poor adoption
of low cost technology such as
the zero energy cooling
chamber
 Lack of financial
resources
 Lack of affordable
technologies,
services and
maintenance
Marketing - - Packaging and storage facilities -
Traders handling
and sorting
-  Use of skilled people and
appropriate system for
each type of marketing
- -
Transporting  Need for
more
refrigerate
d transport
and better
temperatur
e
manageme
nt
 Provide proper
transport available for
farmers and traders
 Farmers are resource poor
cannot afford to buy trucks
with cooling cabins, Inadequate
funds for farmer to procure
replaceable plastic crates
during transportation of tomato
-
Wholesaler and
retailer handling
 Need for
trained
personal
and basic
refrigerate
d
infrastructu
re to
maintain
the cold
chain
-  Education and access to
training
 Cost and
availability
Processing -  Develop infrastructure
adapted to the area
(climate)
 Develop dried
processing
lines/innovative
processing
sheets/packaging/
storage/exports/dried
value addition of
natural/organic
processing (Pakistan)
 Poor electricity supply within
the country coupled with high
cost of fuel, low acceptability of
dried/processed tomato
products except for tomato
paste and puree (Nigeria)
-
Note: No comments were reported for banana, date, onion, watermelon, and pineapple commodities