Postharvest Bioscience Researcher (KTP Associate)

Location: Westfalia Fruit UK Limited, Spalding

This position is ideal for someone eager to produce new knowledge and contribute meaningfully to a sustainable and innovative future in fresh produce.

Westfalia Fruit is a leading multinational supplier of fresh fruit and related value-added products, commanding 52% of the global avocado market. With over 75 years as a trusted of expertise, Westfalia Fruit operates extensive plantations and breeding programs across Africa, North America, and Latin America. Through a vertically integrated supply chain, Westfalia Fruit grows, sources, ripens, packs, processes, and markets quality avocados & fresh produce – 365 days a year and globally.

With the largest avocado-growing footprint in the world, Westfalia Fruit is recognised as the leading #avoexperts, and considered the supplier of choice to both retail and wholesale customers whom they serve from sales offices in the UK, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Southern Africa.

An exciting opportunity has arisen to work as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate on a 36-month collaborative project between Westfalia Fruit UK Limited and Cranfield University.
This project aims to reduce postharvest loss and waste by enhancing Westfalia’s supply chain through an innovative, environmentally friendly, and sustainability-driven systems approach, starting with maturity indexing, coatings, postharvest disease control, storage, ripening, and packaging solutions.

About the Role
In this role, the KTP Associate will work closely with the Westfalia Fruit team and the academic team at Cranfield University to develop sustainable methods for reducing postharvest loss and waste by optimising storage and extending the shelf life of avocado fruit throughout the supply chain, from harvest to the final consumer.

The role includes carrying out fundamental postharvest bioscience and technology research related to the UKRI Innovate UK-funded Cranfield-Westfalia KTP project on avocado postharvest management practices. You will be i) developing country- and cultivar-specific avocado maturity indexing, postharvest treatments, and ripening protocols; ii) undertaking avocado postharvest storage trials and evaluating fruit physiology; iii) using analytical techniques to quantify biochemical changes during avocado maturation and ripening; and iv) developing standardised, scientifically proven postharvest management strategies for implementation across the Westfalia Fruit’s global operations in seventeen countries.

You will be part of a multidisciplinary academic team of postharvest physiologists, plant scientists, and industry stakeholders, including farm managers, quality control personnel, packhouse managers, export certification bodies, technicians, ripening specialists, and specialist technicians in analytical chemistry, and mycology.

About You
You will be educated to first-degree (2:1 or first) level in plant sciences (or relevant subject) with a preference for candidates holding an MSc or PhD in these fields. You will have research experience in fundamental postharvest biology, postharvest technology, food loss, food waste, and mathematical modelling. With excellent communication skills, you will have expertise in designing and undertaking field, and laboratory postharvest storage trials. You will have proven experience in analytical technologies (i.e. HPLC, LC/MS) and data analysis (Genstat, R, or other machine learning tools) and interpretation. Spanish language skills are desirable but not essential.

Additional Requirements are willingness and ability to travel, as the role involves time at Cranfield University and Westfalia Fruit sites, including locations outside the UK.

This project aims to develop sustainable methods for reducing postharvest loss and waste by optimising storage and extending shelf life of avocado fruit throughout our (Westfalia’s) supply chain, from harvest to final consumer.