Governments in developing countries have tended to focus on the production end of their food systems. However, there is increasing recognition of the need to understand the nature of post-harvest marketing and consumers' behaviour in order to develop effective policies for food marketing initiatives and nutrition security. This paper presents an examination of the available research into consumer preferences in the South Pacific region and the contexts in which the research was conducted. Of particular interest is the methods employed to obtain consumer preferences . Consideration is given to the benefits of this type of research in the Pacific and to the issues which might arise in identifying a conceptual framework and methodology.