Huge fruit store to be destroyed

The world's largest scientific repository of fruit could be bulldozed later this year to make way for new homes.

The Pavlovsk experimental station outside St Petersburg, Russia station is one of 11 that are part of the N. I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry, one of the world's oldest seed banks. It holds more than 4000 varieties of fruits and berries, including more than 100 examples each of gooseberries, raspberries, and cherries, almost 1000 types of strawberries from 40 countries, from which most modern commercially grown varieties are derived. Cary Fowler, director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust in Rome called on Russia's prime minister Vladimir Putin, and president Dmitry Medvedev to save the collection.

Norman Looney, president of the International Society for Horticultural Science, based in Leuven, Belgium told New Scientist that with world food production likely to move north as a result of climate change, "these genetic resources will become even more important to breeders".