Quality management in the Papua New Guinea horticultural sector

Purpose of review: The Papua New Guinea (PNG) horticultural sector faces many constraints to improving the quality of its fresh produce, especially when it is transported across long distances from the highlands to formal markets in Port Moresby. Two major constraints are inadequate marketing infrastructure and poor postharvest handling practices. The objective of this study is to review quality management systems adopted around the world in order to draw implications for improving quality management in PNG fresh produce supply chains. Findings: Food consumption and production decisions are increasingly being influenced by consumer expectations, ranging from meeting basic requirements for food safety to addressing social and environmental concerns. In response, there is a proliferation of government regulations and private certification schemes to meet the demand for safe and ethical food. Standards and control measures for ensuring safe and ethical foods are delivered to consumers, some overseas, are extremely complicated, technically demanding, and expensive to implement. Given the current state of the fresh produce supply chain in PNG, it would be impractical and extremely difficult to contemplate introducing those highly advanced quality assurance systems to smallholders. However, issues of inconsistent supply and quality deterioration cannot be addressed satisfactorily without at least taking note of, or better understanding the rationale and principles underpinning various quality assurance systems. Those principles and procedures, when made known, will, at a minimum, raise awareness of quality issues and initiate steps, however small, towards addressing quality management issues in the PNG horticultural sector. Directions for future research: More research is needed to identify and develop locally-appropriate quality standards and quality assurance systems suited to PNG smallholder farmers. More research is also needed to better understand social and institutional constraints to the adoption of improved postharvest technology and quality management measures that are deemed locally-appropriate.