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Feel like a mushroom?

By Jan Lievens

You obviously know about this expression… According to the Free Dictionary, it is like one is being intentionally kept in the dark and told lies, un-informed about something.

Mushrooms commonly grow in dark environments and feed on manure [or rotting materials], so the phrase puns on the idea of being kept in the dark, ie, left un-informed and fed [faeces] – or simply, told lies.

Image credit: Christopher Ott | Unsplash
Image credit: Christopher Ott | Unsplash

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 choice when you solve that equation. Even the brightest minds on earth cannot do it. So, who are you to think that it will be “solved”? Einstein?

Changing absolutely nothing to your whole approach attitude and then “hoping” for the fact that “it will change next year”? Are you mad? Then you better go and smoke mushrooms.

It is in fact like hoping you will have all numbers correct on every lottery that is available worldwide in any language and time zone, all at the same time. Even when you didn’t enter the various competitions. Do you get my drift? It is impossible.

Get real, for your own sake and that of your farm’s sustainability. And I wouldn’t start smoking mushrooms either by the way… just in case…

About Jan Lievens

Jan Lievens, born in Belgium, is a graduate civil engineering(B) and international senior consultant for engineered applied postharvest technology at UTE South Africa. With over 20 years of experience in this field, he is widely regarded as a specialist in the fruit-, vegetable- and flower industry with regards to humidity, airborne bacteria and ethylene removal, both locally and internationally. Furthermore, he also designed airflow-friendly packaging systems for the industry with proven results.

Jan Lievens, born in Belgium, is a graduate civil engineering(B) and international senior consultant for engineered applied postharvest technology at Humiditas South Africa. With over 20 years of experience in this field, he is widely regarded as a specialist in the fruit-, vegetable- and flower industry with regards to humidity, airborne bacteria and ethylene removal, both locally and internationally. Furthermore, he also designed airflow-friendly packaging systems for the industry with proven results.

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