The Californian breeding company Plant Sciences Inc (PSI) is specialised in the development of strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and bramble varieties and supply hybrid seeds for artichokes. The company is represented in countless countries, where they work with larger sales parties through club concepts based on exclusivity. On the British market they collaborate with Total Berry, in Spain with San Luca and Surexport and they have made an exclusivity agreement for varieties in the Benelux with The Greenery.
"Plant Sciences is a relatively small club, consisting of around sixty people. Our main office is in Watsonville (California). We have one agronomist that we employ ourselves. Together we form a team, in which we are supported in Europe and Africa by a number of agents," says Daniel de Vogel. "A number of sales parties have bought in and receive the first rights to try new varieties. The advantage is that these companies are very close to the variety development, in which the breeders have direct contact with those who are in contact with the sales."
Crown jewels
The process of cross breeding until the variety becomes commercial takes around seven to ten years. Patience is a must for the company that has produced various crown jewels over the course of the years. For instance the variety Victory, which due to shelf life and good flavour made market access to Scandinavia possible for the Spanish customers. The variety Splendor also originates from Plant Sciences. "This strawberry variety became big by filling holes that the existing varieties didn't satisfy in the market. It was relatively easy for growers to switch to this variety as a better presentation is produced with the same growing recipe. This automatically created a large demand for planting material!" His personal favourite? It's still a number for Daniel, 2034. "This variety is in Spain and is extremely tasty, as well as standing out in uniformity, shelf life and production."
Number 6.2034
Although the quality of the Spanish strawberries has been debated in recent years, Daniel believes that companies' crop management has made huge steps in recent years. "The use of nitrogen and too much water, combined with the wrong picking plan, gave some problems in the past. You can see a development towards more productive varieties and an improved taste and shelf life. We developed a number of raspberry markets with an improved picking presentation and productivity. We are focussing on the more exclusive market with this. You can see that the growers are absolutely prepared to pay for a premium variety, as long as this provides them with a clear advantage as far as their sales are concerned. At the moment we are focussing more on breeding the larger raspberries."
Besides Spain, the soft fruit cultivation is also rapidly developing in surrounding countries in recent years. An example is the cultivation in Morocco. "But our club partner SanLucar also does a lot in Tunisia and in the winter period there were mainly a lot of raspberries grown in Kenya and South Africa. We aren't active for the Egyptian market and we see other countries with better potential," says Daniel. The increasing greenhouse strawberry cultivation under glass in the Netherlands doesn't have that much impact in the work of PSI. "This cultivation mainly consists of June carriers at the moment, where a preference exists for the specific taste of Elsanta and Sonata. I do expect there to be a shift to continual carriers, as that cultivation combined with June carriers would be cheaper."
The Greenery
The Greenery has had a collaboration bond with PSI for eight years now, where it has the exclusivity on strawberries, raspberries and bramble varieties in the Benelux. According to Sourcing Manager Fruit Gerard van Loon, this collaboration offers the possibility to lay a link between varieties which can be grown profitably for the grower and which also offer what the market demands. "If you want to have success with new soft fruit varieties, you have to bring them onto the market phased with a concept. You can't just put them on auction and see how they are responded to. You can see this with Sonata, which is finding it hard to find the spotlight in Belgium, but is a success here with us."
The Greenery
The Greenery has had a collaboration bond with PSI for eight years now, where it has the exclusivity on strawberries, raspberries and bramble varieties in the Benelux. According to Sourcing Manager Fruit Gerard van Loon, this collaboration offers the possibility to lay a link between varieties which can be grown profitably for the grower and which also offer what the market demands. "If you want to have success with new soft fruit varieties, you have to bring them onto the market phased with a concept. You can't just put them on auction and see how they are responded to. You can see this with Sonata, which is finding it hard to find the spotlight in Belgium, but is a success here with us."
"At The Greenery we operate globally and the cultivation technical knowledge in the Netherlands is at a high level. This makes us a good partner for PSI. We have a lot of contact, and it's ideal that they have a representative in the Netherlands with Daniel," says Gerard. "We have the exclusivity of PSI's varieties for the Benelux. If we see insufficient advantages compared to the existing varieties two or three years after testing, we take the exclusivity off and the variety is opened up freely. As The Greenery our goal isn't to wait, but to be at the front with these kinds of development."
Triumph
Internationalisation
"We are trying to internationalise the collaboration with the PSI partners. A fun example is the collaboration with the Spanish producers Surexport, also a PSI license holder, who has had a sales office in our building in Breda for a number of years now. This already provides logistic and commercial advantages," says Gerard. PSI varieties that a lot of Greenery growers work with include the strawberry variety Triumph, a slightly firmer strawberry which is mainly supplied to the special markets, the raspberry variety Grandeur which has now become the main variety for The Greenery growers and the bramble variety Incentive. "Breeding is becoming more customised work. It's a continual process to bring out a variety which does well early or late in the season. Shelf life, taste, size, these are all considerations for putting down material. A large, even more tasty raspberry, which is profitable to grow and has a long shelf life is high on our wish list."
Triumph
Internationalisation
"We are trying to internationalise the collaboration with the PSI partners. A fun example is the collaboration with the Spanish producers Surexport, also a PSI license holder, who has had a sales office in our building in Breda for a number of years now. This already provides logistic and commercial advantages," says Gerard. PSI varieties that a lot of Greenery growers work with include the strawberry variety Triumph, a slightly firmer strawberry which is mainly supplied to the special markets, the raspberry variety Grandeur which has now become the main variety for The Greenery growers and the bramble variety Incentive. "Breeding is becoming more customised work. It's a continual process to bring out a variety which does well early or late in the season. Shelf life, taste, size, these are all considerations for putting down material. A large, even more tasty raspberry, which is profitable to grow and has a long shelf life is high on our wish list."
For more information:
Daniel C. de Vogel
Plant Sciences Inc.
Mob: +316 21151479
dcdevogel@plantsciences.com
www.plantsciences.com
Gerard van Loon
The Greenery
Sourcing Manager Fruit
Mob: +316-29555202
g.vanloon@thegreenery.com