EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL QUALITY INDEX IN FRESH PEACH MARKETING

   Commercial peach growers in Georgia select marketing channels in response to the perceived importance of fresh peach quality attributes to buyers.
Marketing channels favoring external attributes are supplied fruit with the set of desirable characteristics, while channels emphasizing internal attributes receive peaches that are more ripe, less firm, and juicy.
Using survey data we estimated a multinomial model and confirmed the importance of external or internal attributes to the share of the crop sold through each channel.
Other factors influencing decisions in selecting a specific channel include the size of peach enterprise, the investment in the irrigation of orchards, and the choice of early or late maturing peaches.