Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
from exposed sites on a tree have less chilling injury, whereas more chill-
ing damage is found in exposed tissues of citrus and persimmons. High
temperatures in field affects heat shock proteins, membrane damage, and
skin characteristics. Examples of fruit postharvest responses to high field
temperatures include: (1) skin chilling injury of 'Hass' avocado fruit fol-
lowing four weeks storage;(2) skin pitting of 'Haywood' kiwifruit follow-
ing 16 weeks storage;(3) internal chilling injury (flesh gelling/softening)
of 'Fuyu' persimmons following six weeks storage; and (4) watercore in
'Cox's Orange Pippin' apples three days after harvest (no storage).
Sunburn affected and blemished (due to wind and insect scarring) cit-
rus fruit are more prone to decay during storage and same is the case with
many other fruits (Ladaniya and Shyam Singh, 1998, 1999).
Marketing problems are likely to arise due to climate change and errat-
ic weather conditions. Farmers with contracts to supply a particular prod-
uct to a supermarket chain are obliged to deliver specified quantities; with
major penalties should they fail to do so. This may lead them to produce
more than they expect to need, in order to be sure of meeting the contract.
In case of quality loss due to climate change, there is often no alterna-
tive market, particularly in countries where supermarkets account for a
large share of retail sales. Supermarket standards also lead to waste as
produce that does not meet size, shape or appearance criteria has to be
disposed of. There may be few alternative markets and even if there are
it may be too costly for the farmer to supply them on an
ad hoc
basis.
Finally, supermarkets and other retailers may throw food away when it
reaches its “sell by” date.
As climate change becomes a concern for consumers in wealthier na-
tions, fruit growers in developing countries may be negatively impacted
by the potential market access implications. With climate change and na-
tional strategies to mitigate it's effects increasingly becoming a foreign
policy issue, and with large European supermarket chains such as Sains-
bury's and Tesco, putting pressure on supply chains to account for reduced
emissions, fruit growers have reason to be concerned. It may be possible
that in the near future, carbon emissions could be used as an artificial trade
barrier to fruit producers. In the developing world, fruit growers will have
to start managing the perceptions of buyers and policy makers in devel-
oped countries like UK and other European nations by providing them
with objective information on carbon emissions along the supply chain as
well as keep them informed of measures to reduce these emissions. This
