Birthday boost for Plant & Food
Fruit Logistica 2010: The New Zealand-based R&D group has marked its first anniversary at this year's Berlin trade show
Plant & Food Research is celebrating its first birthday at this year’s Fruit Logistica and, according to CEO Peter Landon-Lane, since the company was formed in December 2008 through the merger of HortResearch and Crop & Food Research, much has been achieved in terms of bringing the two groups’ people and systems together.
“It is exciting to see how much we can achieve together,” he told Fruitnet.com. “We’re finding more and more that the ability to own unique cultivars that can be branded and marketed is being recognised as the best strategy to build premium markets.”
The link between fresh produce and health is now at the core of Plant & Food’s breeding strategy, Mr Landon-Lane confirmed. In the past year, this came into sharp focus with the launch in Australia of a new brassica cultivar marketed as Booster Broccoli.
Developed by Plant & Food Research together with Australia’s Victoria Department of Primary Industry, Booster Broccoli was bred to contain elevated levels of antioxidants.
“This is the first product of the trans-Tasman Vital Vegetables programme, which aims to develop and market a range of vegetables bred to contain high levels of health-promoting compounds,” Mr Landon-Lane explained. “The launch means Plant & Food Research and the Vital Vegetables partners are among the first in the world to market whole vegetables as functional foods.”
Fruit Logistica 2010 offers a great opportunity for Plant & Food to gauge Northern Hemisphere interest in the Vital Vegetables concept, he added: “The exhibition remains a key opportunity to meet European customers and licensees, and support European market strategies of our New Zealand-based customers.”
