"We may soon have New Delhi-resistant courgette plants"

For more than six years, courgette and melon producers in Almeria have been fighting against the biggest threat to these crops: the virus known as New Delhi. This voracious virus has caused multi-million losses for the sector and led many growers to switch to other crops to avoid the risk of losing their production.

That is why the El Ejido-based company Escobar & Castañeda, SL, better known for its brand King Courgette, is funding a research project with laboratories in northern Spain to obtain plants resistant to the New Delhi virus, resorting to advanced biotechnology techniques that have been used previously in potatoes, but never until now in courgette plants.

"In the last year alone, we have lost up to three courgette harvests because of the impact of the New Delhi," recalls José Luis Escobar Jiménez, Commercial Director of the Almeria-based company.

Before undertaking this project, King Courgette tried other methods that didn't yield the expected results, but have helped in better understanding and controlling this virus.

According to José Luis Escobar, "as courgette specialists, we have the obligation to research and find solutions, and many growers have made the switch from courgettes to other vegetables, such as peppers, whose market is becoming saturated due to an excess supply. We cannot afford to continue losing professionals in the courgette sector, so we have to do something."

Regarding the project, José Luis Escobar explains that the results achieved so far are very encouraging. "When the courgette plants are small, they are very fragile and it is difficult to subject them to treatments such as thermotherapy, since the plant ends up dying. With these biotechnology techniques, we have managed to reach the last stages keeping the delicate courgette plants alive. This is a very important step in this project and we are repeating the procedure in order to have enough plant material to be able to analyse it."

"We want to send a message, not only to our customers and final consumers, but also to every link in the value chain, from the producer all the way to the retailer. We want to tell them that there is hope; that courgettes may again become a safe crop and that no more productions will be lost. We are very close to obtaining plants that are resistant to the New Delhi, and even if we fail now, we are not far from the final success," he says.

If the research is successful, the resistant plants will be cultivated experimentally in greenhouses in the next campaign.