Chile’s Fruit Technology Consortium (CTF) has signed an agreement with Spanish soft fruit grower-exporter Masiá Ciscar to develop its raspberry varieties in the Iberian Peninsula.
As the licensee of the Santa Teresa, Santa Catalina and Santa Clara varieties developed by CTF in conjunction with the Faculty of Agricutlure and Forestry at the Catholic University of Chile, Masiá Ciscar will be permited to multiply, propagate and sell the raspberries in Spain and Portugal.
“This agreement highlights the quality of CTF’s genetic improvement programme and the high regard with which it is held globally,” said CTF’s president Ronald Bown. “This not only encourages us to move forward but also means we can count on the resources to go on improving in this task.”
CTF’s general manager Sergio Maureira explained that during the first year, Masiá would perform field trials of the three new varieties to determine their behaviour under local growing conditions, with commercial production due to get underway in 2017 and increasing year-on-year in line with demand.
Santa Catalina and Santa Clara are described as high-yielding early season primocane varieties that can produce double the yield in their first year than the widely planted Heritage variety. They produce an average berry size with a brix of 10.10 o and 10.13 o respectively.
Santa Teresa is another early season high-yielding primocane but produces a larger berry size and has a slightly lower brix level.
The varieties are in the process of being registered with the European Union’s Community Plant Variety Office.
Figures from soft fruit association Freshuelva, raspberry acreage in Huelva – home to almost 90 per cent of the country’s soft fruit production –has increased by around 25 per cent this season to 1,815ha, reflecting the growing diversification of the soft fruit sector seen in recent years.
CTF was created in 2005 to unite producers and academia in pursuit of innovation and genetic improvement. The raspberry programme is one of four run by the consortium, the others being in grapes, apples and stonefruit.
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