AVANT-PROPOS/FOREWORD/PREFACIO

Attendance

There were 160 participants from 37 nations representing 44 geographic origins scattered on all the planet, including numerous developping countries. Among the latter 18 were able to be represented and 6 were more heavily represented owing to grants obtained from French and European organizations.

Beside scientists ther were also producers, factory peoples, extension officers, market operators, members of public or private organizations involved in international market policies. Thus the debates were oriented towards practical horticulture and marketing improvement and not only towards knowledge accumulation.

The papers

In consideration to the diversity of origins of the participants three working language had been selected and simultaneous interpretation organized for french, english and spanish.

85 papers had been accepted for presentation either orally (53, of which 52 were actually presented) or as posters (32, of which 25 were actually presentated). However both presentation modes were not discriminated, as each set of posters referring to a given theme was inspected with their authors before the corresponding oral session and included in its final discussion.

Sixty-four out of them are the matter of the present volume, each one in author-choosen language but with three-lingual abstract. They were carefully sorted and revised by the Editorial Commitee as far as the rigor of the presented experimentations, soundness of conclusions and correct language practice are concerned. However authors remain fully responsible for their statements as well as for the graphic quality of their figures, that of their tables when they were not remitted on diskette, and for the presence or absence of key words, etc.

Room sessions and excursion

The opening session started with addresses by MMrs. Delbois (Martinique Departmental Assembly), Papaya (Martinique Regional Assembly), Tallec (represetative of the French Government) and Melin (Director of CIRAD for Martinique).

The thematic sessions were chaired by Mr. Edouard Étondé Ékoto (Cameroun, President of the COLEACP: world pineapples), then by Drs. Geo Coppens d'Eeckenbrugge (CIRAD-FLHOR Colombia: genetics and breeding), Miriam Isidrón Pérez (Centro de Bioplantas, Cuba: biotechnologies), Duane Bartholomew (University of Hawaii: crop physiology and management), Jean-Louis Sarah (CIRAD-FLHOR Montpellier : pests), Aristoteles Pires de Matos (EMBRAPA Brazil : diseases), Alain Soler (CIRAD-FLHOR Ghana : fruit quality and post-harvest).

On 23 february these room debates were interrupted for an all day field excursion combining horticultural aspects with the scenic splendors of Martinique and the warm hospitality of its inhabitants. Participants were droven through a winding mountain road under tropical rainforest to the main canning factory and biggest mechanized plantation in the island. Both are located on the first slopes of the famous Mount Pelé volcano, in the north. Then they could observe a family farm under technical extension and they had lunch in a magnificent creole manor. The return journey followed the coast towards a rum factory in the south-east… with appropriate testing.

The conclusive session was chaired by Pierre Martin-Prével. Dr. Kenneth Rohrbach (University of Hawaii) presented his here published paper on the world research potential for pineapple. Then Dr. Eric Malé-zieux (CIRAD-FLHOR Montpellier) presented a synthesis of the papers and discussions. Finally the audience defined under Dr. Duanne Bartholomew (University of Hawaii) the future of the ISHS Pineapple Working Group for the coming years. The latter will allow scientists and all professionals to keep in touch, especially through Pineapple News, until they meet at the 3rd. Symposium: see on pages 4 and 605–607.