The canning quality of small white dry beans produced in South Africa is subject to environmental effects, resulting in inconsistent quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate quality parameters and their genotype  environment interactions and to attain a better understanding of variates that discriminate between cultivars for canning quality, using multivariate analysis. Six small white cultivars were evaluated across 11 environments. The cultivars differed signi®cantly over localities for eight of the characteristics. Signi®cant genotype  environment interactions existed for protein, seed size, soaked bean mass, visual appearance, splits, texture and yield. Low linear correlation coef®cients indicated that no single parameter could explain the variation in yield and canning quality attributes. Canonical correlation analysis was used to determine to what extent the variation in biochemical components was responsible for differences in canning quality. The differences between unacceptable, standard grade and choice grade cultivars were examined by means of canonical variate analysis. The differences between cultivars were mainly due to visual appearance and percentage K. The main differences between standard grade and choice grade beans were in seed size and percentage Ca. A model was computed for the objective characterisation of variation in canning quality attributes.