An analysis of horticultural product quality and production standards that regulate the fresh produce trade between Africa and Europe is both timely and welcome. Europe, particularly Great Britain, is the major importer of vegetables and fruit from Africa. This is a substantial business delivering £1 million's worth of produce daily into Britain's supermarkets. Business activity on this scale strengthens the economies of several African states from the bottom-up, providing benefits far beyond those achieved by simple aid programmes. The produce must, however, adhere to the stringent standards enforced on European producers and all other suppliers into the worldwide fresh produce market. It is these standards and their enforcement which are the topics of this book. Five succinct chapters convey details of private voluntary standard systems, the much more powerful and globally accepted GLOBALGAP (Good Agricultural Practice) system, an assessment of those who produce, sell and trade, attempts at encouraging sustainable production and recommendations for success particularly directed at the small-scale growers typical of Africa.

No system of food quality and production standards system can be established without substantial underpinning research and development. Here is the relevance of this book to readers of the Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge. Identifying research needs and supplying the science permitting African growers to meet those standards is a cyclic process. It is not a linear process, as suggested during Britain's near-market cuts, and books such as this one amply rebut that vacuous philosophy. Playing at several levels, this book offers at its simplest an excellently authoritative review of what food standards may be applied in Africa, it demonstrates the economic and social importance of fresh produce exports for that Continent and, more deeply, it identifies aspects of the true nature of agricultural research.