"It's not an entirely new product, but rather an evolution of an older product," explained Jochen Kager. It is employed during the post-harvesting phase and is mostly used for apples, pears, kiwis, plums, avocados and persimmons.
Jochen Kager
"It will also be easier to use, as the active principle will be released by tablets and therefore enable a better monitoring. It will be ready in 2018."
The convention organised by AgroFresh only talked about this innovation for a few minutes. The rest of the afternoon, coordinated by Flavia Succi and introduced by Ivo Secchi, was dedicated to general considerations about the apple sector on a global level.
Walter Guerra
"There are over 40 club varieties in the world. The Netherlands are among the leading producers (20%) although, over the past 20 years, areas dedicated to apple cultivation have decreased (from 15 thousand to 10 thousand hectares)."
Poland remains the country with the largest cultivated area (160 thousand hectares), followed by Romania (60 thousand) and Italy (50 thousand). In France, production dropped by 24% over the past 10 years, though organic production increased by 8%.
New varieties in Alto Adige
"Preferences vary from country to country. Gala clones and other clones have evolved. In the US, red apple consumption has dropped, just like that of Golden apples. Demand for Gala and Fuji is increasing. There are already transgenic apples from the Artic line on the market and feedback is great for new varieties such as Cosmic Crisp (40% of the nursery production) and other types (34%)."
A recap from Walter Guerra
As regards Trentino Alto Adige, club varieties are grown on approximately 10% of the 18 thousand cultivated hectares in Bolzano. In Trento, apple orchards have gone from 9,052 to 8,566 hectares in 10 years (2005-2015).
"We must keep an eye on competitors such as Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia. China has around 2.32 million hectares, 40% of which must be modernised. But the produce is destined mainly to the domestic market. Russia has over 200 thousand hectares with medium-low yields in many areas. The government is co-financing many new orchards."
Some new varieties introduced in China
Adam Paradowsky (photo below), Eastern European manager for AgroFresh, said that the Russian government is financing fruit cultivation to "become self-sufficient."
"New orchards are being planted in all areas. The ban prohibits fruit imports from Europe but some may be able to bypass the embargo."