The postharvest handling research is focusing on the improved technologies for long shelf life and desired shipping quality of fruits, vegetables and flowers so as to facilitate the marketing and export, to stabilize the price during the concentrated production season, and to increase the farmers' incomes. The major achievements in the recent years include: long-range sea shipment technology for lychee, which is able to keep bright red peel color for 40 days with 95% marketability; countermeasures for pineapple postharvest black rot caused by Ceratocystis paradoxa and pineapple black heart caused by chilling injury; avocado storage and soft maturing technologies to supply quality fruits during winter and spring lean seasons; technology to regulate amaryllis blooming time with 70% uniformity to match with special festivities; technology of low-temperature quality maintenance of Indian jujube fruit, which lowers chilling injury and improves marketability to more than 70%; low-temperature storage of dragon fruit for exportation; pre-treatment, fumigation and sea shipment technologies of Oncidium cut flower to preserve quality for exportation; pre-treatment and packaging of Phalaenopsis seedlings for sea shipment to EU and North America markets and reduce seedling rot and shipping cost; new aeration cartons for sea shipment of Phalaenopsis seedlings to enhance export quality; and export preservation treatment and packaging technology of water bamboo to improve flavor and quality after export shipping. Some of the above-mentioned achievements are being commercialized and widely used.On-going research and development aim at the commercial-scale technology and facility development related to the controlled atmosphere storage of various vegetables to extend the storage life to more than 50%.
