author(s)
Birhanu Gebeyehu

abstract
Apple (Malus domestica) is a tree and its pomaceous fruit, of species Mauls domestic a Borkhin the rose family Rosaceae, is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits. The main objective of this review is to review postharvest handling of apple fruit with the following Specific objectives: to review pre-harvest factors that affect postharvest quality of apple fruit and review postharvest factors that affect quality of apple fruits. The factor that causes postharvest losses of apple fruits are harvesting, storage, packaging, transportation and marketing and some other pre -harvest factor that affect the postharvest quality of apple are cultivars, cultivation practices, fertilizer, irrigation, environmental factors(temperature, relative humidity and atmosphere condition,) and soil type. Postharvest losses of apple can occur due to improper harvesting, transportation, packaging, storage, processing/sorting, grading and marketing. The major causes of postharvest losses of apple are physiological disorder (caused due to freezing, high temperature, mechanical damage and pathological disorder. Management of temperature and relative humidity are the most effective tool for maintaining quality and extending the shelf life of apple fruit after harvest. It can conclude that, all horticultural crops are very perishable because of their high content of water, soft in texture due to this there is high amount of postharvest loss. To overcome such problem the only option is that properly postharvest handling should conduct at any stage of postharvest chain to reduce losses and maintain quality.