Abstract
Background: A major concern plaguing South African pome fruit exporters is the volume of fruit going to waste during the export process. The senescence of fruits and the deterioration in its quality are accelerated by an increase in temperature. Thus, the first step in ultimately extending the shelf life of exported pome fruit and decreasing the risk of rejections is to ensure constant temperature control.Objectives: The study investigated the severity of temperature protocol deviations within the apple and pear export cold chains from the Western Cape, South Africa to the Netherlands. The study was undertaken in 2018 for Company X, an international fruit exporting firm, to improve the efficiency of its cold chains.Method: The research conducted temperature trials starting as close to the farm as possible and concluding as close to the end consumer as possible. Pulp and ambient temperature probes were inserted into and around the fruit to monitor export temperature profiles.Results: Firstly, the trial results show that non-compliance with temperature protocols occurred more often along the pome fruit export cold chain than initially anticipated. Secondly, the position within the pallet where the temperature breaks occurred highlighted an issue of heat retention resulting from unintentional oversights early in the cold chain. The study also identified areas of possible improvements where management could mitigate senescence factors.Conclusion: The study concluded that the efficient and effective functioning of a cold chain depends on cumulative efforts by all the supply chain partners rather than on the efforts of a single partner.
Highlights
The pome fruit industry is an important and successful subsector of South Africa’s agricultural economy
The data from 222 of the 288 initially inserted devices were retrieved at the end of the 12 temperature trials
It should be noted that temperature breaks were grouped into container breaks
Summary
The pome fruit industry is an important and successful subsector of South Africa’s agricultural economy. South Africa is the second largest producer of deciduous fruit after Chile (Hortgro 2020). South Africa exports the second largest volume of apples and pears after Chile and Argentina, respectively (Hortgro 2020). In 2020, approximately 56% of South Africa’s apple production and about 55% of its pear production were destined for the export market (Hortgro 2020). A third of all South Africa’s agricultural exports comprises fresh fruit. Approximately 3.6 million tonnes of South African fruit are exported worldwide to more than 90 countries (Fresh Plaza 2020), generating more than R24 billion in economic value (FPEF 2021). The first step in extending the shelf life of exported pome fruit and decreasing the risk of rejections is to ensure constant temperature control
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