According to the information that Sergio Maureira, general manager of the Fruit Technology Consortium, gave to SimFRUIT, the new varieties of Chilean raspberries have aroused great enthusiasm and the plants are now available to interested parties.
"The varieties developed by the Fruit Technology Consortium are now on sale and interest has been hot because their fruit has a high quality, a great caliber, and a sweet taste," Maureira said.
Maureira said producers interested in buying the plants had to buy a minimum of 5,000 plants, i.e. about the amount needed to plant half an hectare.
He added that, since they are protected varieties, the person in charge of the production also had to sign a contract and pay a royalty, in addition to the sale price, before taking delivery of the plants.
The representative of the Consortium then highlighted the excellent work of Dr Marina Gambardella and her team, which resulted in these new raspberry varieties that have generated so much interest in Chile and overseas, especially in Europe.
Successful experience
The Chilean producers who have already acquired and planted these new varieties spoke highly of their performance. One of these producers, German Sims, the general manager of Agricola and Fruticola Quihua, told SimFRUIT that he currently had a plantation of 4 hectares of the three varieties and that, due to the good results, he planned to increase his acreage by 15 new hectares and, later on, to 40 hectares.
"We have produced raspberries for 24 years and were cultivating old varieties. We urgently needed to change them. We were in the process of bringing a variety from the United States and decided to abort that project and bet on 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.
"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 more fruit. We're about to go on a break, so we can only speculate but, on average, each fruit weighs approximately 7 to 7.5 grams - a huge increase if we compare it with the Heritage variety that weighs 1 to 1.5 grams. In addition, the IQF process yields were quite acceptable for such a large fruit. So everything is very, very good," he said.
New varieties
Santa Catalina, is an early raspberry variety from a day-neutral plant, with a semi-erect growth that can get to be 1.75 meters tall. Its fruits are medium-sized and have an average weight of 4.23 grams and a maximum weight of 7.3 grams. This variety produces fruits earlier than the Heritage variety. Each plant can produce up to 832 grams in the first year, i.e. twice as much as the Heritage. It has 10.10 Brix and an acidity of 1,2%.
The Santa Clara variety is a day-neutral plant that has a semi-erect growth and can get to be 1.85 meters tall. Its fruit has a middle size that weighs an average of 4.13 grams, and can have a maximum weight of 6.2 grams.
This variety also produces fruit earlier than the Heritage variety and has a very good performance, as each plant can produce up to 764 grams in the first year, twice as much as the Heritage. Its Brix is 10.13 and its acidity is 1.4%.
And finally, the Santa Teresa variety is also a day-neutral plant that can grow up to 1.70 meters. Its fruit is large, weighs an average of 6.09 grams, and has a maximum weight of 9.3 grams. As with the previous varieties, it yields fruits earlier than the Heritage variety. Its performance is very good and each plant can yield up to 758 grams in the first year, i.e. twice as much as the Heritage. Its Brix is 9.80 and its acidity is 1.9%.
Source: SimFRUIT