A sometimes thankless task, plant breeding is a long process, particularly for some biennial crops, often taking between eight and 15 years to breed a new variety. With this in mind, seed breeders have to be ahead of the game and know what the market will be looking for almost before it knows itself - a particularly mean feat in the current economic climate.
But despite funds being tight, seed breeders are coming up against a long list of requirements from growers and retailers; increased yield, lower production costs and high disease resistance are, and always will be, high on the wish list.
“We believe that economic factors continue to be a major driver in a grower’s choice of variety,” says Rebecca Dawson, marketing director at one of the UK’s largest independent seed breeding companies, Tozer Seeds. “Disease resistance, in particular, is becoming more of an absolute requirement for some crops, where there are fewer and fewer chemicals available to treat and prevent certain diseases, and in crops like spinach and lettuce, where mildew races are ever mutating.”
So even though times have been tough over the last 18 months, innovation has powered through, as it has to, and many seed breeders have pushed to find that point of difference that the UK market is looking for.
Recent Tozer exclusive introductions have included Mottistone lettuce and Amethyst purple radish, and its Autumn Crown squash variety will be hitting the supermarket shelves this year.
Elsoms Seeds introduced the first hybrid swedes last year. These products are a step forward in terms of early vigour and uniformity and, as a result, packed yield per acre. The company is also looking to improve disease resistance in swedes, with regards to mildew and Phoma resistance, parsnips with canker resistance and all the major diseases concerned with brassicas, as part of the joint breeding programme with Bejo. In addition to this, a new area of interest for Elsoms Seeds in 2010 is the baby leaf market.
On this note, Nickerson-Zwaan UK has added a new iceberg lettuce to its salad range with the introduction of Antartica. The field-holding ability and extended harvest window of Antartica aims to provide significant advantages to growers, retailers and customers.
Clause UK distributes products from its French-based parent company’s breeding programmes, which are directed towards improving varietal characteristics advantageous to all sectors of the market.
“The newly introduced carrot, Match F1, has been quickly noticed by growers for its exceptionally strong, healthy foliage and very high-quality, well-finished roots with good colour, length and uniformity,” says Clause UK’s product development manager, John Ward. “It promises to make a significant impression on the carrot industry.”
On the brassica front, as part of Clause UK’s Savoy and cabbage range, the company has several processing varieties, including Squadron F1, which offers very productive yields over a long, reliable storage period, owing to minimal waste levels after peeling.
Escarole and frisée endives are an important crop for many salad producers, and Clause UK has introduced new varieties Emily, Alexia and Maruchka. “These have been selected from our trials for their improved tolerance to tipburn and bolting,” says Ward. “They have also been bred for their upright growth and voluminous heads, providing a good weight of clean product for processing.”
Innovation has definitely survived the recession, points out Dawson. “If anything, we have been even more innovative in our selection of new varieties for market,” she says. “In the UK, in particular, we have seen the enormous growth in growing your own. Our vegetable breeders identified a need for more varieties suitable to pot production, hence we developed a range of vegetables that are more compact in their habit, crop prolifically and have something different about them. Summer Ball courgette/pumpkin, a dual-purpose crop, was our first release in 2008, which has been followed by Autumn Crown squash, striped courgette Safari and new runner bean Moonlight for the 2010 season.”
Tozer Seeds has found that butternut squash has been hugely successful and, with the introduction of smaller, earlier ripening fruit, chefs, gardening programmes and, therefore, consumers have seemed to turn a niche market vegetable into a winter staple. “We firmly believe that vegetable breeding is both an art and a science; you can’t have one without the other,” says Dawson. “We continue to release brand-new material into the marketplace: most recently, our range of speciality brassica leaf products, novelty ‘petit posy’ sprouts, a range of basil varieties and butternut squash, all bred for the UK climate and for the UK and some international markets.”
But fruit and vegetable breeding is an expensive business and, in the recession, cost is all-important. However, paradoxically, so is research and development in order to sustain the fresh produce industry and help it remain profitable in future.
Many are worried about the expected closure of Warwick HRI in Wellesbourne and the big hole in the research and development side of the UK vegetable industry that it will leave. “Route to market for new varieties is often frustrating and costly, the fees for protecting and listing new varieties in the Common Catalogue can prohibit or delay their release and that is before plant breeders’ rights are considered,” says Dawson. “The cost of registering niche market crops, such as those bred by breeding companies like Tozer Seeds, can place a huge demand on resources, which ultimately reduces funds available for some breeding programmes.”
KEEPING INNOVATION IN THE PICTURE FOR BRASSICAS
Nickerson-Zwaan UK has extended its range of market-leading vegetable varieties by selecting innovative products that bring benefits to the grower, retailer and consumer, says Nick Bolton, Nickerson-Zwaan’s brassica range manager. By focusing on higher disease resistance, improved flavours and colour, plus shelf-life issues, the company is providing solutions to needs across the whole chain.
To complement our market-leading pointed cabbage Duchy F1, we have just introduced Dutchman F1. It has similar qualities to its stablemate, but has a milder, sweeter taste and more attractive colour. Another new pointed cabbage is Monarchy F1, with much improved frost tolerance allowing the extension of the UK growing period and helping to replace imports and reduce food miles.
Our new summer cauliflower Seoul F1 yields a very dense curd with a high proportion of processing-sized florets for economical production, while Dionis F1, a late February type, has a high level of leaf disease resistance, as well as good tolerance of cold conditions helping to reduce inputs and maintain UK-sourced supplies.
A new development in Brussels sprouts for the UK Christmas market is NiZ 16-4391 F1. The variety produces an exceptional yield of high-quality buttons, with superb flavour and very good resistance to diseases.
SAKATA UK SET TO LAUNCH NEW VEGETABLE LINES FOR 2010
For the coming season, Sakata UK Ltd has several new lines for commercial release. These include a new pak choi, a hybrid red, round radish and two new hybrid Swiss chards.
The new pak choi - Chu Choi - will be launched commercially in 2010 and is a hybrid Canton type with very slow bolting resistance. The head can be cut for mini heads of 60-80g, or when mature can easily weigh 120-150g.
Potential new releases in the coming year include a mid- to late-season round cabbage and an early-season Nantes carrot for bunching. And making the most of consumers favouring more traditional vegetables, Sakata UK is working on a hybrid turnip, which has caused great interest in commercial trials.
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