Despite their crucial importance for food product quality, harvest management practices remain understudied. Harvest is particularly challenging in the fresh fruit sector, due to the fruit’s perishable, variable, and seasonal nature. In this study, we seek to better understand the agronomic, organizational, and institutional drivers influencing fruit harvest management, using the Corsican clementine harvest as a case study. In that production area, the standard “Clémentine de Corse” protected geographical indication is used by local actors to define and enforce appropriate harvest practices. The data were gathered through interviews with the farmers, packing station managers, and shippers who form the first link in the production chain. We show that harvest practices are shaped by the interactions between three management levels: (i) the plot, where picking teams select the fruit to be picked from those to be left on the tree for the next pass; (ii) the farm level, at which growers synchronize the harvesting dynamics with the ripening process of a set of plots with heterogeneous degrees of maturity; and (iii) the marketing level, where shippers and packers must match up the harvesting dynamics of all their suppliers with the demands of their buyers’ market. According to this multi-level perspective, we analyzed the agronomic, organizational, and institutional drivers influencing the diversity of harvest management practices among farmers, and the influence of the protected geographical indication on the harvest process. Our study is the first to highlight how harvest practices are constructed and how various hierarchical levels of agricultural systems act together to shape them. Based on these results, we draw generic lessons and perspectives with a view to improving fresh fruit harvest management.

尽管它们对食品质量至关重要，但收割管理方法仍未得到充分研究。由于水果易腐，易变和季节性，因此在新鲜水果行业中收获尤其具有挑战性。在本研究中，我们以科西嘉岛柑桔收获为例，力求更好地理解影响果实收获管理的农艺，组织和机构驱动因素。在该产区，当地行为者使用受“Clémentinede Corse”保护的标准地理标志来定义和实施适当的采伐方式。数据是通过与构成生产链第一环节的农民，包装站经理和托运人进行采访而收集的。我们表明，收割方法是由三个管理级别之间的相互作用所决定的：（i）地块，采摘小组从树上留下的果实中选择要采摘的果实，以进行下一次通行；（ii）农场一级，在该级别上，种植者将收获动态与一组成熟度不同的样地的成熟过程同步；（iii）营销水平，在此水平上，托运人和包装人必须将其所有供应商的收获动态与买方市场的需求相匹配。根据这种多层次的观点，我们分析了影响农民收割管理实践多样性的农艺，组织和机构驱动因素，以及受保护的地理标志对收割过程的影响。我们的研究首次强调了收获实践的构建方式以及农业系统的各个等级层次如何共同作用以塑造它们。