INTRODUCTION - Tropical Fruits - page 9

Fig. 1.2. European consumers' knowledge of different fresh tropical fruits (redrawn
from Sabbe et al. , 2009).
of Horticultural Science (ISHS) has established a Commission of Tropical
and Subtropical Horticulture, with working groups in specifi c tropical and
subtropical fruits. The various working groups meet at regular intervals,
and meeting times and places are posted on the ISHS web site ( http://www.
ishs.org/calendar/). The calendar posted at this site is the most extensive
that deals with horticulture conferences. The International Tropical Fruit
Network (TFNet) ( http://www.itfnet.org/) is an excellent source of tropical
fruit knowledge. TFNet is an independent global network that serves as a
depository of tropical fruit production, postharvest, processing, marketing
and consumption information. For Latin America, an InterAmerican Society
of Tropical Horticulture (formerly Tropical Region of the American Society
of Horticultural Science) was active until 2006. Annual meetings were
held in dif erent Latin American countries. Their web site is at ( http://www.
ashs.org/isth/index.html) (accessed 19 January 2010), and this site lists the
many volumes published from 1951 to 2004, which are available in some
libraries and were abstracted in Horticulture Abstracts until 1998, and are now
available by subscription through CAB Direct ( http://www.cabdirect.org/).
TROPICAL HORTICULTURE
Tropical agriculture, including fruit production, has a number of limitations.
In the next chapter we will consider the constraints associated with