A Preliminary Assessment of Horticultural Postharvest Market Loss in the Solomon Islands

Steven Underhill,Leeroy Joshua,Yuchan Zhou

doi:10.3390/horticulturae5010005

Steven Underhill, Leeroy Joshua + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae5010005

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Abstract

Honiara’s fresh horticultural markets are a critical component of the food distribution system in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Most of the population that reside in Honiara are now dependent on the municipal horticultural market and a network of smaller road-side markets to source their fresh fruits and vegetables. Potentially poor postharvest supply chain practice could be leading to high levels of postharvest loss in Honiara markets, undermining domestic food security. This study reports on a preliminary assessment of postharvest horticultural market loss and associated supply chain logistics at the Honiara municipal market and five road-side markets on Guadalcanal Island. Using vendor recall to quantify loss, we surveyed a total of 198 vendors between November 2017 and March 2018. We found that postharvest loss in the Honiara municipal market was 7.9 to 9.5%, and that road-side markets incurred 2.6 to 7.0% loss. Based on mean postharvest market loss and the incidence of individual vendor loss, Honiara’s road-side market system appears to be more effective in managing postharvest loss, compared to the municipal market. Postharvest loss was poorly correlated to transport distance, possibly due to the inter-island and remote intra-island chains avoiding high-perishable crops. Spatial mapping of postharvest loss highlighted a cohort of villages in the western and southern parts of the main horticultural production region (i.e., eastern Guadalcanal) with atypically high levels of postharvest loss. The potential importance of market-operations, packaging type, and mode of transport on postharvest market loss, is further discussed.

Highlights

Solomon Islands is a South Pacific archipelago consisting of six major islands and a further986 smaller islands, atolls and reefs
This study reports on a preliminary assessment of postharvest horticultural market loss and associated supply chain logistics at the Honiara municipal market and five road-side markets on Guadalcanal Island
The level of postharvest loss was significantly higher in the Honiara municipal markets compared to the Honiara road-side market in the March 2018 survey

Summary

Introduction

Solomon Islands is a South Pacific archipelago consisting of six major islands and a further986 smaller islands, atolls and reefs. Commercial food supply chains have become increasingly important in the Solomon Islands due to a combination of rural to urban population drift [3,4], population growth [5,6], ongoing challenges associated with agricultural productivity [7], and the impacts of adverse weather events [1,2,8]. This trend is acute in the capital Honiara, with only 32% of the urban population having access to a home garden [6].

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