“Meiosis’s main role is to evaluate, commercialise and exploit the full potential of suitable new varieties for the soft fruit industry,” says Taylor. “We licence the propagation of varieties, both in the UK and overseas, and collect royalties accrued on the sales of plants.”
The company is clearly going from strength to strength. It currently represents 26 soft-fruit breeding programmes from various countries across the globe. These include Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK.
Some of the varieties that the company is responsible for are strawberries from East Malling Research including; Alice, Flamenco, Florence and Mae, raspberries such as Joan Squire, Himbo-Top and Octavia, as well as blackberries, currants and gooseberries.
In the last year the company has added three breeding programmes to its portfolio. Taylor explains: “Agriculture Victoria Services in Australia, EC Meulblok Boomkwerkerij in the Netherlands and Agriculture Research Institute in Serbia are the latest breeding programmes to come on board. This is another important development, with a greater number of commercially viable varieties in our portfolio it can only lead to raise the company’s profile.”
Such developments also enable Meiosis to continue its advancement in the territory of new varieties. Taylor says: “Over the last year we have seen the introduction of the early season strawberry (Mae) from East Malling Research; a strawberry (Matis) and raspberry (Comtesse) from Jacques Marionnet in France; a raspberry (Marwe) and two redcurrants (Augustus and Roodneus) from EC Meulblok in the Netherlands and we have also seen the arrival of a large-fruited blackberry (Karaka Black) from HortResearch in New Zealand.”
The early season Mae strawberry has a number of outstanding qualities. “It has a good fruit quality that is suitable for all types of retail outlets. The large well-shaped berries enable rapid harvesting and the good eating quality of the berries is important to the consumers,” says Taylor. “Mae provides growers the opportunity to start the season with a productive variety that comes on stream one week earlier than Elsanta.”
There are also additional varieties that are beginning to make an impact on the industry, particularly those released from the breeding programmes at East Malling. Taylor adds: “Sales of the late season, disease resistant strawberry, Florence, continues to increase and is making a significant impact in northern Europe. Flamenco, the high-quality ever bearing variety seems destined to find a place in the industry. Trials are being conducted to establish the potential of cropping the variety right through from the normal summer-fruiting season until the autumn. The late summer fruiting raspberry, Octavia offers the potential to fill an important gap in the season, between the end of the normal summer fruiting varieties and the start of primocane types.”
In addition, there are a number of strawberry and raspberry selections currently on trial. These offer the potential for exciting new varieties for the industry in the future. Taylor says: “Among the strawberries from the East Malling programme under evaluation are an early season selection, EM1231, which appears even earlier than Mae. Also from East Malling is the early season summer-fruiting raspberry selections, EMR6544/80.”
Efforts will continue says Taylor, as there is always room for improvement. “The ideal variety hasn’t been bred yet. With regards to the varieties available to the industry, improvements in yields of high quality fruit which has a good shelf-life, improved picking efficiency and good pest and disease resistance are constant goals for breeders.”
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