Pmas Arid University Rawalpindi Pakistan

1. Presentation by
Mehak Fatima
12-Arid-236
Topic : post
hatvest
manageme
nt in apricot

2. The apricot is native to central and
western China.
This fruit was brought to Italy about
100 B.C., to England in the 13th
century, and to North America by 1720.
Most of the apricots in the U.S. are
grown in California;

3. 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Turkey
517 000 352 000 499 000 350 000 894 000 483 459 589 732 750 574 695 364 476 132 676 138
Italy
187 700 200 110 108 320 213 425 232 832 221 994 214 573 205 493 215 121 252 892 263 132
France
103 164 169 418 123 814 166 136 176 950 179 812 126 409 94 516 190 382 140 573 154 980
Spain
134 767 127 549 143 840 121 486 137 167 156 872 89 023 109 108 97 100 75 000 86 899
Morocco
104 300 86 200 97 950 85 000 103 600 129 440 105 234 113 216 133 598 132 398 132 523
Greece
70 771 70 272 59 854 89 538 73 613 71 586 83 287 77 400 62 000 76 800 82 800
South
Africa 62 554 56 672 50 006 96 968 43 688 83 639 55 391 61 222 50 100 58 942 57 421
World apricot production - all volumes are in metric tons (MT)
2001-2012 World Apricot Production

4. Flow chart

6. Quality
Characteristics and
Criteria
Fruit size, shape,
and freedom from
defects
High consumer
acceptance
"ready to eat".
Point to ponder…

7. Horticultural Maturity
Indices In California, harvest date is
determined by changes in skin ground color
from green to yellow. The exact yellowish-
green color depends on the cultivar and
shipping distance.
Apricots should be picked when still firm
because of their high bruising susceptibility
when fully-ripe and soft.

8. Grades, Sizes and
Packaging Apricots are always
harvested by hand, usually into picking bags
or plastic totes.
Apricots are generally handled in half bin or
totes and hand packed.
In some cases, apricots are dry-dumped
over a soft packing line.

9. optimum Storage
Conditions Apricots are seldom
stored in large quantities, although they keep
well for 1 to 2 weeks, or possibly even 3 to 4
weeks, depending on cultivar, at -0.5oC to
0oC and a relative humidity of 90-95% R.H.
Susceptibility of cultivars to freezing injury
depends on SSC, which may vary from 10-
14%. Highest freezing point = -1.0oC.

10. Controlled Atmosphere
(CA) Considerations The major
benefits of CA during storage/shipment are to retain
fruit firmness and ground color.
CO2 are suggested for moderate commercial
benefits;
Exposure to 5% CO2 for longer than 2 weeks can
cause flesh browning and loss of flavor.
The addition of 5-10% CO2 as a fungistat during
transport (less than two weeks), may improve the
potential for benefit from CA.
Prestorage treatment with 20% CO2 for 2 days may
reduce decay during transport and/or storage

11. Retail Outlet Display
Considerations
Cold table display is recommended because of
their fast ripening.
Ripening before consumption (home) should
be ideally done at temperatures of 18oC to
24oC

12. Chilling Sensitivity
Chilling sensitive cultivars develop chilling
injury symptoms (gel breakdown, flesh
browning, loss of flavor) more rapidly at 5oC
than at 0 oC.
Storage at 0oC is necessary to minimize
incidence and severity of chilling injury on
susceptible cultivars

13. Physiological Disorders Gel
Breakdown or Chilling Injury
short market life and loss of flavor.
Pit Burn: Flesh tissue around the stone
softens and turns brown when the apricots are
exposed to high temperature
This heat injury increases with higher
temperatures and longer durations of exposure.

14. Postharvest Pathology
Brown rot: Caused by Monilia fructicola is the
most important postharvest disease of apricot.
Infection begins during flowering.
Fruit rots may occur before harvest, but often
occur postharvest.
Orchard sanitation to minimize infection
sources, preharvest fungicide application and
prompt cooling after harvest are among the
control strategies. 10/22/99

15. 4 Rhizopus Rot: Caused by Rhizopus stolonifer
occurs frequently in ripe or near-ripe apricot fruits
held at 20 to 25oC.
Cooling the fruit and keeping them below 5oC is
very effective against this fungus.
Special Considerations The greatest hazard in
handling or shipping apricots is decay—mainly
brown rot and rhizopus rot.

16. Diseased
apricot
Coryneum
blight

20. References Andrich, G. and R. Fiorentini.
1986. Effects of controlled atmosphere on the storage of new
apricot cultivars. J. Sci. Food Agr. 37:1203-1208. Brecht, J.K.,
A.A. Kader, C.M. Heintz, and R.C. Norona. 1982.
Controlled atmosphere and ethylene effects on quality of
California canning apricots and clingstone peaches. J. Food
Sci. 47:432-436. Chambroy, V., et al. 1991.
Effects of different CO2 treatments on postharvest changes of
apricot fruit. Acta Hort. 293:675-684. Claypool, L.L. and R.M.
Pangborn. 1972.
Influence of controlled atmosphere storage on quality of
canned apricots. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 97:636-638. Folchi,
A., G.C. Pratella, S.P. Tian, and P. Bertolini. 1995a. Effect of
low oxygen stress in apricot at different temperatures.