FOREWORD

An editing team consisting of L.M. Albisu, U. Avermaete, E. De Kleijn, L. Ekelund, D. Meijaard and J.-C. Montigaud has reviewed the presented text. Principal criteria for publication were comprehensibility and a scientific approach. For some papers, a revision was carried out in consultation with the authors. For the other ones, lack of conformity with the editorial requirements led us to refuse the texts even if the subject was interesting. An exception is made for contemporary economic topics which are put into a separate not reviewed chapter called Capita selecta.

The contents follow the general program of the Symposium. Four topics can be distinguished : new trends of horticultural economics (new tools, effects of liberalization…), environmental problems (organic horticulture, quality, use of pesticides and fertilizers…), marketing issues (agro-industrial research, promotion, company strategies, price analysis…) and farm management (recent trends, techniques and applications). The reader will notice that horticultural economics is more and more influenced by the management science and industrial organization.

The Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique (ENSA) and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in Montpellier, France, must be thanked for providing the means to work on this issue. Mrs Anne-Marie JEAN did a lot of work by retyping some papers and facilitating the printing.

Finally, I would like to thank the Languedoc-Roussillon Region which sponsored this Symposium and specially its President who personally supported the project. I am also grateful to institutions (AGROPOLIS, CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE, CIHEAM, COMITE ECONOMIQUE, CONSEIL GENERAL, DGER, DRAF, INTERFEL, ONIFLHOR) and private firms (ANECOOP, Ets CLANET, Expl. GIAMMATTEI, COVIAL, CRENO, INTERFLORA, JEANJEAN, MIGROS, TCA and TFE) which subsidized this manifestation.

J.-C. MONTIGAUD
Convenor of the XII^th International
Symposium on Horticultural Economics