The field day was held at “Fruit Tech Campus” and aimed to showcase the IVU varieties and their progress in Europe. Attendees from Italy, Spain, Switzerland, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Hungary, Moldova, Australia, and Chile participated.
Alejandro Navarro, Director of IVU Chile, stated: “I want to highlight the level of attendance, people who are interested in the industry, in our projects. The most important thing was to confirm on-site that our early varieties have the quality of mid-season varieties. For them, it is very relevant to find varieties before Kordia, but of good quality, because everything they have today, in general, are varieties that do not meet the fruit quality: soft, with splitting problems, etc.”
This search has generated great interest in the IVU varieties from the European industry; in fact, for several years, Meda Cherry has had a “testing” program in Europe, developed in the Netherlands, which has been very well evaluated to date.
This program also includes development agreements in Chile, and also in the United States and South Africa. Australia and New Zealand could join soon.
“From Australia, both from the island of Tasmania and mainland Australia, companies came that are interested in the same objectives as Chile. In the case of Moldova, they mentioned that with Russia blocked, fruit shipments take about 40 days, just like from Chile. So, they are very interested in this project because it has long conservation varieties to reach more distant markets, either due to logistical issues or in case of enduring problems due to war, and they can still reach markets with better quality than today,” added Giampaolo Dal Pane, director of Innovation Fruit, Italy.
The event began with an introduction to the IVU breeding program, led by Alejandro Navarro, Director of IVU Chile. Additionally, Ronald Vermeulen addressed the “Evaluation of IVU Cherry at Fruitmasters.” Sjaak Walraven, on the other hand, presented on “Trials in Europe and the status of virus-free material at NAKT.”
“People felt satisfied with the good organization, and the varieties also met expectations. The venue where we held the field day is very comfortable, the talks were of very high quality, providing a lot of information about the quality of early varieties, which was later confirmed on the field. Finally, we had a meal in a field where they have a cherry museum. There was a very good atmosphere, and the attendees were able to see that what we were talking about was true. I think that was the most interesting part because one can speak a lot of theory, but in practice, they saw the calibers, the firmness, and we also told them when we will start the project in Europe,” concluded Alejandro Navarro.
