Origin Fruit Group Citrus Packing Protocol

HARVEST & SPECIFICATIONS

Harvest

The logical end to all crop production efforts is the har vesting of the crop and the movement of the crop into marketing channels to the ultimate consumer. The vol ume and quality of the crop have been determined by production practices and the impact of climate. How ever, proper harvesting and postharvest handling and storage practices are necessary to minimise losses during distribution and to assure that only good quality produce reaches the consumer. Harvesting methods vary considerably between different types of crops. Some crops, such as maize, are harvested mechan ically with the help of combine harvesters, while other crops, such as berries, are carefully handpicked. In orchard farming, including citrus, fruit are picked from the tree mostly by hand, from where it is tak en to the packhouse in bins or trailers. The citrus farmer must make many decisions about the har vesting process that will influence the quality of the fruit that reach the consumer and that will determine the cost of the picking and the packing process.

When the farmer for instance sees that there is a lot of fruit that will obviously not be suitable for export, he may choose to pick the poor fruit in a separate process either before or after the export fruit is picked. Strip ping substandard fruit is referred to as culling. Other very important decisions that the farmer must take is when to start picking, and in what order to harvest the various orchards. In this, the farmer takes into account the historical harvesting records and is assisted by methods of determining the maturity of the fruit, which is referred to as maturity indexing. It is also important to have a thorough understanding of the harvesting re quirements for various types of citrus. Some citrus cultivars are more susceptible to for in stance oleocellosis, which is damage caused to rind cells by peel oil release as a result of abrasion, rough handling or other injuries, and must therefore be treat ed with more care.

• Outside EU • Destroyed • Retour • Cold treatment

PHYTO

Q

EXPORT INSPECTION

X

IMPORT INSPECTION

EU MARKET

PUC

FCM MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

QUICK COMPREHENSIVE RESPONSE SYSTEM

PhytClean

• Data collection • Extra sampling

LEGEND

Living Q organism Q

Dead organism X

Clean

3

Origin Fruit Group | Citrus Packing Guide