Santa Clara, Santa Catalina, and Santa Teresa varieties, are all varieties that were created in Chile and marketed worldwide in 2015. One of the places were they are produced is in Huelva, Spain. There, Enrique Masia, the technical director of the agricultural company, Masia, planted them and took care of them. Today, the Spanish producer says that two of these raspberry varieties have had excellent results.
"The first part of the project has had very good results, especially with the Santa Catalina and Santa Clara varieties, which are very competitive varieties in Europe. In the first year they have been above expectations. In Huelva, they already outperformed the Adelita variety, both in flavor and in volume. Even though they are new plants, they produce three kilos per plant, so we are looking forward to next year's production," said the agronomist.
The three varieties were developed by the breeding team of the Faculty of Agronomy of the Catholic University that was led by Marina Gambardella, after the Fruit Technology Consortium decided in 2006 the country needed to have its own varieties to be more competitive.
"We realized we had to bet on our own varieties that could adapt to local conditions, but that could be grown elsewhere," said Sergio Maureira, the manager of the Fruit Technology Consortium.
The initial bet was on the local market, however, as Marina Gambardella showed their progress in international meetings, producers from other parts of the world began to be interested in them.
"Surprisingly, we began to receive inquiries about them, even when we were not looking to sell them abroad," said Maureira.
In 2015 the consortium announced the first shipment of plants to Spain and in 2016, they licensed the representation for Spain and Portugal to Enrique Masia.
Up to six crops
So far, there are over 5 hectares of trial plots, with a little more than 63 thousand plants, of these new varieties in Spain, including in the Canary Islands. This surface may seem small, but it has been an optimal experience for the Spaniards.
Since this fruit is planted to produce in the middle of winter, they are working it in greenhouses. As a result, they will be able to have fruit when they do not have production.
In addition to obtaining good results, both in performance and quality, they have discovered these varieties have other advantages.
"Santa Catalina, for example, has allowed us to program its pruning and it produces more fruits again. That is to say, we can get about six productions a year. In addition, it has a good caliber, provided that we carry out the proper agronomic practices," said Masia. He also said that the results of the Santa Clara variety had also been good. "However, the Santa Teresa variety has not worked so well, basically because it presents shattering problems and it doesn't behave as competitively as the other two," he stated.
"Our expectations of the fruit's quality and the plants' good performance are very high. You have to consider that the plan is to change the plants every 24 months, so the prospects are very good. We've had good results so far so we think the future will be better," he said.
The Spanish producer expects to be selling his fruits in the next European winter, and to be delivering new plants next season.
Despite the success that these new varieties are having abroad, as they are also licensed in Italy, Australia, and Mexico, and even though they were created as an alternative for the varietal replacement in the Chile, they have not had the same answer in the country. "It has been very complex to enter Chile," says Maureira, adding that they have not been able to discover the reason. In fact, there are only about 40 hectares planted with these varieties in the country.
Source: Revista del Campo El Mercurio