ISHS Acta Horticulturae 161: Symposium on Production and Preservation of Pears
PREFACE |
| Abstract:
It is a pleasure to me to present this volume 161 of Acta Horticulturae as a joint publication of the International Institute for Refrigeration - IIR and the International Society for Horticultural Science - ISHS, with the proceedings of the 4th Pear Symposium held in Avignon from 28 to 31 May 1984. We have welcomed the idea to organize a joint symposium sponsored by both organizations. It is important that narrow contacts exist between researchers on the side of production and researchers following the fruit from the tree to the consumers table. This symposium has given a good opportunity to establish or to improve these contacts and the jointly published proceedings give an idea about the actual state of knowledge on pear production and on post-harvest problems. These proceedings contain the papers presented, and the accompanying discussions, at a meeting held in the "salle de la panneterie" Palais des Papes, Avignon (France) during May 28 – 31, 1984. It was a joint meeting between the International Institute of Refrigeration (Commission C2) and the International Society for Horticultural Science (Working Group "Pears"). The meeting handled all problems ranging from the culture to the marketing of pears. Eight sessions dealt with the following topics :
During the meeting a visit was made to two fruit packing stations employing diverse packaging equipment and varied fruit storage. The last day of the meeting was devoted to an excursion to the countryside surrounding Nimes and Arles, with a visit to two experimental orchards producing new pear varieties or hybrids, specially those resistant to fireblight. Acknowledgements are due to the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique and INTERFEL (a French professional organisation) for their financial contributions and to the Central Office of the International Institute of Refrigeration for its support and assistance in preparing and publishing the provisional documents and the proceedings. Acknowledgements are also due to all those who actively and efficiently contributed to the material organisation of the Avignon meeting. From the discussions during the meeting it appears that in many countries pear culture is suffering from a recession. The economic rentability of a pear orchard is not as rapid as that of an apple orchard and it is not easy to improve product quality. In general, pears require complementary ripening after their period of refrigerated storage. A late variety will only ripen after a suitable period of cold storage. The consumer, or retailer, is not fully conversant with this essential stage. Furthermore, fireblight now menaces western European orchards and some varieties have already been destroyed. Much work remains to be done to not only increase but also maintain the production of this fruit and improve its quality so that demands are kept stable : market studies have shown that pears are a popular consumer item. The conclusions of the meeting were that greater efforts need to be made at all levels, from pear cultivation through to market research.
The participants were unanimously agreed that further meetings need to be organised in cooperation with other international organisations. |
