QUALITY OF PEACHES AS A FUNCTION OF PICKING TIME AND CONSUMER'S PREFERENCES

The gustative quality of the peach is a function of its development and of its level of maturity at harvest. To have a good gustative quality, peaches must have more than 10% of sugars contents for the earliest one's, and more than 11% for the latest one's.

The quality is the highest when peaches are picked at a firmness level lower than 3 kg/0.5 cm² (yellow peaches) or 2.5 kg/0.5 cm² (white peaches). A very few number of varieties are felt bad by tasters when harvested at the good maturity.

A harvest at maturity increases the yield, and the profit for producer is 5 to 14% bigger. Trading tasts have shown that the consumers accept to pay 30% more for peaches with superior warranted gustative quality.