An overview of preharvest factors influencing postharvest quality of horticultural products Errol W. Hewett Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health Massey University, Private Bag 102 904 North Shore Mail Centre, Auckland, New Zealand E-mail: E.W.Hewett@massey.ac.nz Abstract: Postharvest product quality develops during growing of the product and is maintained, not improved by postharvest technologies. Available genetic material allows discrimination of external and internal quality attributes that must satisfy consumer requirements and indulgences. Farmers face challenges in utilising technologies for producing high quality crops; meaningful manipulation of light, nutrients, water and plants is possible only when plant responses to environmental conditions are understood. Genetic engineering can produce plants with desirable characteristics, but society is not yet convinced that benefits gained outweigh risks. Protected cropping enables growers to produce consistent crops in environments where production is often variable, and production of high value crops ‘out of season’. Farmers, scientists, extension specialists and market personnel must work together to provide knowledge, best practices and enabling tools for growers to ensure preharvest conditions are optimised for production of high quality horticultural crops that titillate, satisfy and reward discerning consumers. Keywords: satisfaction; dry matter; taste and flavour; consumers; microclimate; mineral nutrition; calcium; harvest maturity; ethylene; transgenic plants; supply chain management. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Hewett, E.W. (2006) ‘An overview of preharvest factors influencing postharvest quality of horticultural products’, Int. J. Postharvest Technology and Innovation, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp.4–15. Biographical notes: Professor Hewett (Emeritus) has been Professor of Horticultural Science at Massey University since 1986. He is an Honorary Fellow of the New Zealand Society for Horticultural Science and a member of the American Society of Horticultural Science. Since 1998 he has been Chair of the Quality and Postharvest Commission of the International Society for Horticultural Science. He is a member of the Management Committee of the International Tropical and Subtropical Fruit Network. He has supervised many graduate students in postharvest physiology, he has been involved in the publication of more than 80 papers, and made presentations at many international conferences.