VentureFruit and their HCP programme partners are planning to be at Fruit Logistica Berlin in February 2023, where an exciting announcement about the new apple variety “HOT84A1” will be made. This comes after an in-person meeting by the VentureFruitTM team and their Hot Climate Programme (HCP) partners, Plant & Food Research, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) and Fruit Futur, who welcomed new and existing testing partners from around the world to the IRTA Fruit Centre in Lleida, Spain last month.
Global COVID related travel restrictions have meant that this was the first opportunity since 2019 to meet in person, discuss the challenges growers are experiencing and how HCP varieties offer a solution to these challenges.
Attendees from 13 countries and more than 35 fresh produce companies gave a strong validation of the global focus and demand for resilient pipfruit (apple and pear) varieties, as the sector recognises the need for fruit varieties that can adapt to climate change conditions.
Varieties evaluated were those closest to commercialisation opportunity – advanced selections that have both grower benefits through harvest dates, improved pack outs of marketable fruit, reduction in waste and harvest costs and consumer expectations of a consistently great eating experience.
HCP Evaluation Process
The process is a two-fold approach involving consideration of both grower needs and consumer preferences. For growers it’s assessing the new varietals for superior hot climate performance and resilience (in comparison to traditional varietals), ensuring the trees produce high quality fruit to meet production, supply and market requirements.
For consumers it’s satisfying expectations at point of purchase as well as the eating experience, ensuring the fruit has consistency in appearance, taste and texture. Across both apples and pears, suitable varieties are continuing to be identified and added to the development pipeline.
“VentureFruit invests extensively in consumer research in key markets globally to understand consumers perception of sensory attributes relative to benchmarks, to explore product and brand positioning and to inform future breeding objectives. By doing this we optimise the value proposition of each variety and of the programme as a whole”, says Kate James, Business Development Manager, VentureFruit.
Fruit Logistica in Berlin under BayWa Global Produce umbrella
As part of BayWa Global Produce, T&G and VentureFruitTM will be jointly exhibiting with BayWa Obst (Germany), TFC Holland (Netherlands), ENZAFRUIT Continent (Belgium) and Worldwide Fruit (UK) at Fruit Logistica in Berlin. They will be the joint stand in Hall 27, C-13.
For more information:
Angela Hayes
T&G Global Limited
Tel: +64 21 190 5495
Email: angela.hayes@tandg.global
