The second day of Macfrut, the international fruit and vegetable fair, was “a boom and completely full”, according to the event organisers, and indeed it was. The pavilions of the Rimini Expo Centre were already full from the early hours of the morning by thousands of people who visited the various logistics, production, technology, services and other pavilions.
During the second day of the important horticultural event, an interesting workshop on cherries was held, with two Chileans as protagonists: Alejandro Navarro, director of IVU Chile and Viveros Sur, and Marlene Ayala, an academic from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, a specialist in genetic improvement of cherries.
New Varieties
The central theme of this event was the Exhibition of Plant and Varietal Innovation, an event in which everything that has been achieved in the sector was revealed, and where opinions were exchanged and new relationships were established between those who create and develop innovation in fruit growing.
One of the main workshops was about cherries, where the topics: "Cherry Times, the taste of knowledge" and "Current status and future prospects in cherry breeding" were addressed, ending with "Varietal innovations in cherries", with representatives from Chile, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and the United States.
«In addition to attending several meetings with representatives here in Europe, I was invited by Macfrut through our genetic program that we manage IVU varieties in Chile and the rest of the world, we are currently developing in the United States, Chile, Europe, South Africa and probably later in New Zealand and Australia,» explained Alejandro Navarro, director of IVU Chile and speaker at the workshop.
The cherry workshop was part of five refresher seminars covering the latest results in genetic improvement in fruit growing: this year, the focus is on varietal innovation in actinidia, strawberries, apples, table grapes and cherries. The five workshops are complemented by direct contributions from those who create, manage and promote varietal innovation at an international level.
Marlene Ayala, an academic from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, also participated in the event, through a video in which she explained the advances in varietal issues from research on breeding and the development of a genetic improvement program for cherry trees.
Promotion of varieties in fruit growing
The Round Table “Promoting varieties in fruit growing, between messianic expectations and piracy: a realistic approach” took place today. The discussion focused on the creation of a system at the national level in all areas of the supply chain, from producers to certification organizations, and up to the final stage in distribution, to effectively and efficiently continue the fight against varietal piracy.
Several stakeholders from the agri-food and certification sectors who participated in the debate highlighted the importance of protecting intellectual property related to genetic material for varietal improvement purposes.
The two roundtables on the international nursery business took place on Wednesday and today; topics included certification and qualification of nursery products, current forms of protection for plant patents, variety clubs and modern programming techniques in the fruit sector, new breeding technologies used to create innovation and research and development of new techniques in the plant nursery sector.
