Only a minor share of the consumed apples in Nordic countries are domestically produced. Therefore, minimal post-harvest losses are critical to better satisfy consumers’ demand for locally produced fruit and to improve growers’ economy.
Text: Larisa Gustavsson
Researchers, stakeholders and decision makers has gathered during the last two years, to exchange and assemble knowledge and pave the way for efficient collaboration on storage losses.
The common strategic goal has been to minimize post-harvest losses due to storage decay. To achieve that, the network Nordic Apple Network brought together researchers and stakeholders in two informative meetings and moved forward in our understanding of important pre- and post-harvest factors leading to development of storage rots.
This has also had an immediate impact, since some ideas for new research projects were developed. For example:
• Which are the main causes for postharvest losses?
• Physiological disorders – conditions on which these are occurring
• Fungal diseases – how to identify them?
A platform for a long-term collaboration involving researchers and the apple industries in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland has been built.
