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First paragraph: Orderly marketing of perishable commodities often requires storage to balance day-to-day fluctuations between product harvest and sales; for a few products, long-term storage is used to extend marketing beyond the end of harvest season. Long-term storage is feasible only if the product gains enough value during the storage period to pay for the cost of storage. To minimize product quality loss the storage must slow biological activity of product by maintaining the lowest temperature that will not cause freezing or chilling injury and by controlling atmospheric composition; slow growth and spread of microorganisms by maintaining low temperatures and minimizing surface moisture on the product; reduce product moisture loss and the resulting wilting and shrivel by reducing the difference between product and air temperatures and maintaining high humidity in the storage room; and reduce product susceptibility to damage from ethylene gas. With some commodities, the storage facility also may be used to apply special treatments. For example, potatoes and sweet potatoes are held at high temperature and high relative humidity to cure wounds sustained during harvest, table grapes are fumigated with sulfur dioxide to minimize Botrytis decay damage, and pears and peaches may be warmed and exposed to ethylene to ripen more quickly and uniformly. This section describes the equipment and techniques commonly used to control temperature, relative humidity, and atmospheric composition in a storage facility [1, 2].