Tree fruit breeders in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley have picked up funding from the federal and Quebec governments in a bid to get new apple and sweet cherry varieties commercialized more quickly.
No, that wasn’t a typo. Quebec’s ministry of agriculture, food and fisheries (MAPAQ) and the Reseau d’essais de cultivars et de porte-greffes de pommiers (RECUPOM), a network of public and private players in the province’s apple industry, have pledged $140,000 for breeding work by the Okanagan Plant Improvement Corp. (PICO).
That’s on top of a contribution of up to $2.3 million announced last week by federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Kelowna-area MP Ron Cannan, flowing from the Developing Innovative Agri-Products initiative, part of the Growing Forward ag policy framework.
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The funding is meant to “enhance and accelerate the commercialization of new high-quality varieties.”
PICO, based at Summerland, B.C. and owned by the B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association, is the licensing agency representing government and private breeders for domestic and worldwide distribution of new varieties of tree fruits and berries.
The corporation’s holdings include exclusive evaluation, distribution, propagation and commercialization rights from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for plant material developed in the apple, cherry, berry and soft fruits breeding programs of the B.C.-based Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre (PARC).
“With this project PICO enters into a new phase that will benefit Canadian growers and consumers alike by enabling us to better manage the development, selection, testing, evaluation and uptake of new high quality apple and cherry varieties,” PICO CEO John Kingsmill said in the government’s release.
The funding is expected to help develop “new varieties that appeal to consumers” while also boosting tree fruit breeding and refining horticultural practices.
“The commercialization of new apple and sweet cherry varieties will help expand domestic production and increase exports of tree fruit products,” the government said.
In 2008, the government said, apple and sweet cherry varieties accounted for a total of 77 per cent of tree fruits grown in Canada by farm gate value, with sweet cherry production valued at $25 million and the farm gate value of apples at $178 million.
The bulk of the fruit grown commercially in Canada comes from B.C., Quebec and Ontario, hence Quebec apple growers’ interest in the PICO project.
