Santa Teresa, Santa Catalina, and Santa Clara are the three new varieties of Chilean raspberries that were developed by the Fruit Technology Consortium and the Faculty of Agronomy of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. The varieties are registered in the Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG), and licensed in Spain and Portugal, which ensures their marketing given the great interest that producers and exporters in Chile and abroad have shown in acquiring them.
"Our raspberry varieties are in high demand because the people that have acquired them have had positive experiences. So far, we have sold 100,000 plants of the three varieties for production to producers from the V, VII and VIII regions of Chile," said Sergio Maureira, general manager of the Fruit Technology Consortium.
Maureira added: "Given the good results that the varieties have had in the areas where they have been planted, we already have 300,000 orders for plants for next season. This is very positive, as it confirms the excellent work done by Dr. Marina Gambardella and her team, and it will allow us to continue working and innovating for the sector."
Results in the field
According to Sergio Maureira, ten producers have bought about 100,000 plants of this three new raspberry varieties to date. One of them is German Sims, the general manager of Agricola y Fruticola Quihua. Sims currently has a plantation of 4 hectares of the three varieties; however, given the good results he's had, he plans to plant another 15 hectares and expects to cultivate 40 hectares in the future.
"We have produced raspberries for 24 years and were cultivating old varieties. It was necessary to urgently change them. We were in the process of bringing a variety from the United States and decided to abort that project and go for the varieties from the Consortium and the Catholic University. We wanted to give them an opportunity to see if they were as good as they said they were, and the truth is that we have had very good results," said German Sims.
Regarding results, the professional stated: "We started planting in November last year and in the first season we produced almost 4,000 kilos per hectare of each variety, now they are producing even more fruit. Now, we're about to go on a break. Thus, we can only speculate. In average, each fruit weighs approximately 7 to 7.5 grams, a huge increase if we compare it with the 1 to 1.5 grams that a Heritage raspberry fruit weighs. In addition, the IQF process yields were quite acceptable for such a large fruit. So everything is very, very good," he said.
Quihua mainly focuses on the frozen raspberry market, so the plantations were cultivated so that they could be harvested by machines. "We did some experiments, looking for various driving systems for harvesting machines, and all three driving systems performed very well. The three varieties fall from their peduncles very well, without having to do additional efforts," he stated.
"Our company is dedicated to organic production. We are involved in all of the fruit's process. We produce, process, and export directly. Our exporter is about to turn three years old. Our main market is the United States but we also send some volumes to Canada, Australia, and Europe," said the representative.
Projections
"The three varieties are responding well, but despite the good results we believe it is necessary to test them for another season, because we planted our fruits late and started having very late fruit. Thus, we still have to make more assessments to see if we keep the three varieties or only one or two of them," said the executive.
However, Sims said, they wanted to cultivate another 15 hectares of these new varieties next season. "We are thinking of planting an entire field or just over 40 hectares in the future. Now, we will increase our experimental area, where we have planted the new raspberry varieties, by 15 hectares. Our goal is having a production that is more industrial, so we can extrapolate our results to larger projects."
"I think these new varieties are a tremendous advance for the sector because they are tasty, more resistant, have a better post-harvest, and easily fall from their peduncle. Overall, it is a very good fruit, in general, very good. Undoubtedly, they are an genetic improvement," German Sims stated.
More information:
Cecilia Casanova Carrillo
ASOEX
Cruz del Sur N° 133 - Piso 2 - Las Condes
Fono: +(56) 22472 4700
Celular: 9-95141411