all trucks arriving from other countries to wait at the border for a daily
armed convoy to warehouses in Kuwait City.
Facilities at the border would help improve the quality of fresh pro-
duce by reducing the number of times the doors would need to be opened
on refrigerated cargo. Cross-docking at refrigerated docks would main-
tain the cool chain. Sample boxes removed for quality evaluations would
also be more representative of the shipment because they could be se-
lected at random from all parts of the load as the cargo was transferred.
Mexico
A collaboration agreement between the University of Georgia and the
University of Veracruz in Xalapa, Mexico, included a workshop in
Xalapa for training on SSM (Prussia et al., 1995). Participants gained
an operating knowledge of SSM in less than two days. Four teams were
assembled to represent mango producing and harvesting, packing, mar-
keting, and retailing. A short lecture was given to all participants on the
next stage of SSM before the four teams developed material for that
stage. Each team presented results for their part of the chain before the
lecture on the next stage.
A second exercise was to develop possible organizational structures
for a new extension program for fruit and vegetable production and mar-
keting in the state of Veracruz. The group was rearranged into two teams
using SSM. One approached the project from the perspective of grow-
ers and packers and the other team represented brokers and retailers. The
results from the first team was a traditional university-based extension
organization while the second team decided that the extension system
should be owned by the distribution end of the food chain.
Brazil
A visiting scientist from Brazil studied SSM at the University of Geor-
gia for the purpose of learning ways to improve fresh fruit and vegetable
businesses in Brazil. A root definition was developed for exporting as-
sociations that included the following CATWOE:
Customer—agribusiness managers
Actors—members of the exporting association
Transformation—dynamically improve concepts for efficient
postharvest handling of horticultural products and prepare dy-
namic procedures for each business