**5. Conclusions**

Horticultural postharvest loss in the Honiara municipal market is consistent with the level of loss in the Apia municipal market, Samoa. Guadalcanal's road-side vendors appear to experience less postharvest loss than vendors in the municipal market; however, the reasons for this are still unclear. The level of loss observed in Guadalcanal's postharvest markets is thought to be due to a combination of poor packaging, the type of crops being sold and possible opportunistic market participation associated with trade farm surplus. While the types of transport used by smallholder farmers were documented, their contribution to postharvest loss is unclear. We believe that potentially higher market loss is being mitigated by market vendor practice. Rapid market throughput-associated fast on-selling of the product reduces the time a product requires to be stored in the market. Farmers with potentially challenging transport supply chain logistics, which are likely to incur high postharvest loss, appear to be avoiding highly perishable crops in favor of semi-perishable fruit and starchy root crops. The observation of a series of farms toward the western and southern margins of the main production center with atypically high levels of postharvest loss warrants further investigation. Similarly, further work is required to better understand on-farm harvest and postharvest practices and possible elevated loss at the consumer-end of the chain.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, S.J.R.U. and L.J.; methodology, S.J.R.U. and L.J.; investigation, L.J.; statistical analysis, Y.Z.; writing—original draft preparation, L.J. and S.J.R.U.; writing—review and editing, S.J.R.U., L.J. and Y.Z.; supervision, S.J.R.U.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) grant number LoA SAP 2017/16 "Policy measures for the reduction of food loss/waste along fruit and vegetable value chains".

**Acknowledgments:** We would like to express our sincere appreciation for the invaluable assistance and support provided by Michael Ho'ota and Selson John Ulasi (Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Solomon Islands), Nichol Nonga (FAO), Peter Iro (Solomon Islands National), and the Late Tim Martyn (FAO). We would also like to acknowledge students from the Solomon Islands National University who assisted in data collection and the numerous Solomon Island road-side and municipal market vendors and small-holder farmers, who provided their time and input in support of this study.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.
