Until the 1990s, Argentina's pear and apple varietal composition was limited to traditional varieties. In those years, the country started incorporating new varieties as a reconversion alternative. Back then, the country introduced the Abate Fetel and Golden Russet Bosc pear varieties and the Gala and its clones, Braeburn, Fuji and Cripps Pink apple varieties.
The varieties can be broadly categorized into commodities that are freely planted and commercialized, such as Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Williams, Packham's, Beurre D'Anjou, etc. As well as club varieties, which have a regulated planting, marketing and quality standards. There are various marketing systems for the club plants and fruit with a different designation, for example Cripps Pink plants and its fruit Pink Lady TM is a Registered Brand (MR) or Trade Mark (TM). The goal of the club varieties is to extend the life cycle of the variety through the regulation of supply thus maintaining a higher market value than the commodity varieties.
The commodity varieties can achieve a price difference through their quality, by adding differentiated value to them, producing them organically (organic or biological), through biodynamic, or with some other parameter of differentiation; otherwise they are doomed to suffer the fluctuations of supply and demand.
Club varieties have many more failures than successes, and the current successful ones are the Cripps Pink, Jazz, Kanzi and Evelina, so producers must know how to manage them and primary producers must carefully analyze the marketing channels as, in general, there is an increase in the degree of dependence of commercial channels that are usually exclusive.
Crosses can have different goals. In some cases, the goal of crossing different varieties is to incorporate some specific character, such as genes of resistance to pests or diseases; producers, for example, have been working for decades to obtain varieties that are resistant to apple scab (Venturia inaequalis) (i.e. recent varieties: SQ159 and Modì).
Some apple varieties are designed to be consumed by children during the school day or adults during the working day, as is the case Rockit and Isaaq, which are characterized by their small size. Other varieties, such as the as Luresweey Redlove, Red Moon or Surprise Inside apple varieties were created with a red pulp to differentiate them from other varieties.
Several producers strive to create varieties that have a yellow skin at the optimum time of harvest, such as the Shinano Gold Yello ™ (Golden Delicious by Senshu) or UEB32642 Opal (Topaz by Golden Delicious).
In pears producers try to incorporate red coloration; the crossing of Abate Fetel by Cascade resulted in the PE4UNIBO brand variety registered as Lucy Red, obtained by the breeding program of the University of Bologna. In the year 2016 the Red Modoc variety (Williams for Forelle) previously known as Lowry2, which is a completely red pear, was introduced in Europe. Other crosses seek to obtain pears with russet (Dazzling Gold, Angelys).
Other breeders are looking for European pears that are ready to eat after the harvest. This characteristic is typical of Asian pears, so they have been incorporated as a parent in the breeding program. As a result of this program we have the Picka Boo variety, which was recently launched on the market.
At the moment, Club varieties do not have a significant production volume and represent about 3% of the total planted in Europe. However, for some countries, such as New Zealand, they represent more than 33%, as this country is a major generator of these new varieties.
It is essential that a country and a region manage their own varieties, otherwise they will be limited to marketing only commodity varieties or to have few producers and hectares of licensed varieties, a situation that leaves many out of the market.
It is necessary to evaluate the behavior of a new variety when it is introduced into a region, especially if it has been obtained in a different agro-ecological environment. INTA Alto Valle has been carrying out the evaluation of new varieties available in Argentina for several years.
Source: rionegro.com.ar