Steve Buissinne | Pixabay

During a recent breakfast meeting it was brought to my attention that allegedly somebody chartered a ship and sent uncooled containers with grapes from the farm to Port Elizabeth to get cooled in one or other cold room before shipping them out of the country . Of course , with disastrous quality consequences . Not a lot of details were given , but again it proves a point , or twenty-five .

In an earlier meeting with a well-known exporter , quality issues after harvest were brought forward and in another phone call with Egypt later in that same week , they started crying that they have had huge quality issues with their grapes after

harvest - even when they “ only ” have a transit time of around 10-12 days max .

Quality problems seem to be springing up like mushrooms , and you are still continuously being treated as a mushroom too . Come on ladies and gentlemen , how many times do I have to write that the last 5 percent on your growing produce path is of the most importance !

If you are trying to play with mother nature ’ s laws , you will lose - big time , every time .

Time and timing are of the essence in your game . At least start listening to people that have meant well for 25 years and can prove that their natural theories work .

The postharvest methodology is not just one single little issue that needs your attention . It needs an integrated approach to look at the whole chain of events , not just one little momentary issue .

One of the interesting issues , where for forty years all kinds of illustrious people have played tug of war games , revolves around the cartons .

Really ? Let us make this amazingly simple .

Do you really think the air is going to go look for a difficult way to get through your cartons and inner packaging ? Really ? Do you think it would help to put “ Post It ” notes on your boxes to say to the air where it must go ? Or that you can put mini “ one way ” street indication boards on your boxes to guide the air ? Or are you going to stand in the cold room with a megaphone to give “ air ” instructions to force the air to go where you want it to go ? And then of course also give it instructions to go through the closed punnets and through all the holes in the perforated bags even if they are blocked ?

I am sure you have a smile on your face after having this brought across to you in a humorous way , but it is a reality . Proper airflow designed cartons have been known for donkey ’ s years as well . So why not implement it ?

Do you want a brilliant definition of true chaos ? Fruit cartons from different farms with fourteen different carton manufacturers , all with different designs and different inner packaging , and of course , different temperatures , coming together in one big cold room in various tunnels at different stages in the cooling process with different temperatures with a central refrigeration system .

Good luck if you want ( and can ) solve this puzzle with the positive effect to maintain quality after harvest . You can become president of any country of