FOREWORD

As was agreed that the publishing should be realised in the first half of 1983, a number of authors did not succeed in having their paper ready for submission in time, so unfortunately a few had to be left out.

The Programme Committee as well as the ISHS are very grateful for the work done by the convener of this Acta, number 138, titled "Post Harvest Physiology and Storage".


Secretary-General of ISHS

Ir. H.H.van der Borg


PREFACE

Harvested horticultural crops are living products, most of them being very perishable ones. A considerable portion of the world production undergoes perishing after harvest during transport and marketing, due to improper handling. The more and more increasing distances between the places of production on the one and of consumption on the other side - often crossing country borders -, as well as the increased demand of the expanding world population mainly for food necessiate growing efforts towards diminishing losses.

All kinds of postharvest treatments are energy wasting and costly. Nevertheless, in most cases they are less expensive than to produce an additional amount of crop equivalent to the losses of comparable gradings. On the other side, all efforts towards improving production are absurd, if a product was not handled appropriate to the specific crop during postharvest period.

Scientists engaged in post harvest physiology as well as -technology met at the XXIst International Horticultural Congress (Hamburg, Germany, F.R.) to discuss postharvest problems. This issue of ACTA HORTICULTURAE, collecting several of the papers delivered at this Congress, is to assist efforts towards decreasing postharvest losses by knowledge of physiology and proper transfer to practicable technologies.

J. Weichmann