This symposium brings together the 17th International Symposium on Horticultural Economics & Management and the 5th International Symposium on Improving the Performance of Supply Chains in the Transitional Economies, under the overall title of "Enhancing relationships to minimize risk". It will be held in Brisbane, Australia in 2014 during the International Horticultural Congress (IHC2014). Globalisation and trade liberalisation continues to change the nature and structure of the food industry. Every actor within the horticultural value chain has been affected in some way. Through globalisation, food producers have greater access to a wider source of raw materials and new market opportunities. Globalisation also provides consumers with a greater variety of choice and value-added products. However, globalisation also presents food producers with a greater number of challenges, for the food industry is vulnerable to disruptions in areas such as food safety, changing customer requirements, competition, market pressure, legal/statutory requirements and climate change. In such a volatile environment, actors in the value chain need good risk management practices to identify and manage risk. Opportunity-based risks are the risks associated with not taking an opportunity and those associated with taking an opportunity. Uncertainty-based risk is the risk associated with unknown or unexpected events, which by their very nature, are impossible to control or influence. Conversely, hazard-based risk is the risk associated with a source of potential harm or a situation which has the potential to cause harm. Hazard-based risks include: (i) physical hazards; (ii) chemical hazards; and (iii) biological hazards. To minimise the risk, most markets now require some form of quality management system. However, at the producer level, efforts to introduce quality management systems continue to meet resistance because producers lack the knowledge and there are few price incentives. Today, most downstream actors in the food industry are managing risk through entering into enduring long-term relationships. Developing long-term relationships provides improved access to markets and more reliable market information; a more reliable supply; improved product quality and performance; and a higher level of technical interaction in the form of potential product adaptations and technical assistance in developing and launching new products. However, the primary reason for establishing relationships with suppliers is that customers realise that suppliers create value.