The APHNet is a network under the auspices of ASEAN designed to promote best practices and support QA systems development for ASEAN horticulture. The development of harmonised agricultural standards is fundamental to achieving ASEAN’s plan to achieve an ASEAN community by the year 2020 embodied in the Declaration of ASEAN Concord II.

The APHNet was developed as part of an ASEAN - Australian Government initiative under the ASEAN-Australia Development Cooperation Program – Program Stream, Quality Assurance Systems for ASEAN Fruit and Vegetables (QASAFV) Project. This project further reinforces a previous project, Quality Assurance Systems for ASEAN Fruit, implemented under the ASEAN-Australian Economic Cooperation Program. Following this project, ASEAN and Australia agreed that work on quality assurance systems for fruit and vegetables required a regional focus and were a high priority. This would be the first time that the newer member states of ASEAN, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, would be participating in a regional project covering both fruit and vegetable handling.

The QASAFV project design team undertook a four-week regional mission to consult widely with various stakeholders in each ASEAN member country. Following consultations, the ten member countries stated that an ASEAN postharvest horticulture network (APHNet) should be developed to facilitate communications and information exchange. A summary of the stated purposes of the APHNet are to:

• Act as a repository of existing information on fruit and vegetables from ASEAN, Australian and other countries where relevant and possible, including quality standards and SPS requirements of key markets
• Act as a directory of relevant institutions, experts, practitioners and other stakeholders
• Provide links to reference web sites related to these issues
• Provide specific knowledge related to intra-ASEAN and extra-ASEAN imports and exports requirements
• Provide access to project reports, materials, training courses and other relevant information.

The website will be hosted and managed by the Australian Implementing Partner until December 2004, after which time it will be taken over by an organisation under the auspices of ASEAN.