CPVO 'Plant Breeding Success Stories' continue with another example of a promising European enterprise: Advanced Berry Breeding. With its headquarters based in The Netherlands, the company's main focus is breeding innovative raspberries with low inputs —less water, les fertilizer and chemicals—while setting new standards in grower ease, post-harvest quality and profitability. Today, we discuss the latest trends in the sector with Mr. Hubert Gadret, Chief Executive Officer at ABB, and Mr. Roy Briga, Chief Scientific Officer at ABB.
CPVO: Could you briefly describe the story behind Advanced Berry Breeding? When did you started and what is your mission?
Advanced Berry Breeding: Advanced Berry Breeding (ABB) was founded in 2006 with the vision of revolutionizing the raspberry breeding industry. Our mission is to create diverse and profitable raspberry solutions that empower growers everywhere. Over the years, ABB has developed a portfolio of successful and top-performing raspberry varieties known for their superior fruit quality, shelf life performance, disease resistance and yield. In our breeding program, which is anchored by three innovative breeding lines, each designed to address the unique needs of growers and evolving market trends. Today, ABB is recognized as a leader of innovation in raspberry breeding, constantly advancing our research to support growers and marketers in achieving success.
CPVO: What motivated you to seek protection from the CPVO for your plant varieties? How does your business benefit from the legal certainty provided by the CPVO system?
Advanced Berry Breeding: Our varieties are protected by Plant Breeders’ Rights through CPVO which ensures our raspberry innovations are safeguarded across key markets. It secures our intellectual property but also builds trust and confidence among growers and nurseries who depend on our high-quality varieties. We benefit from this protection as it allows us to avoid illegal propagation of our intellectual property – this way we can value the investments done on the R&D side and continue to create diverse and profitable raspberry solutions that empowers growers around the world.
CPVO: Are there any specific insights in breeding raspberries? What are the main challenges that you are facing?
Advanced Berry Breeding: Our success in raspberry breeding stems from our ability to balance key traits such as flavor, resilience, disease resistance and yield among others. Each variety caters to grower and market requirements. One of the main challenges we face is to create varieties with an extended shelf life – ensuring fruit quality remains intact from harvest to table. Additionally, creating varieties that can thrive in diverse climate conditions remains a complex challenge.
CPVO: What are the latest innovations in raspberry breeding?
Advanced Berry Breeding: Raspberry breeding is a relatively young industry compared to vegetables and many of the latest innovations are inspired by advancements in the vegetable seed industry. Techniques such as the use of molecular markers and seed breeding have become essential in any innovative breeding program. These tools allow breeders to identify desirable traits with precision, speeding up the development of new varieties that offer improved resilience, fruit quality and yield. At ABB, we are integrating these innovations into our breeding program to push the boundaries of what raspberry varieties can achieve. This includes creating varieties with longer shelf life and better adaptability to diverse climate conditions—all designed to meet the evolving needs of growers and markets.
CPVO: ABB is offering a very interesting Raspberry Breeding Program dividing the raspberry varieties into three lines: Premium quality varieties, Easy-to-grow line and Winter-ready line. Can you tell us more about the lines and which is the most interesting for growers?
Advanced Berry Breeding: All three breeding lines are interesting for growers because they are complementary. They are designed to offer a raspberry solution to growers worldwide. The goal of our breeding program is to enable year-round production, ensuring a consistent supply of high-quality fruit 52 weeks per year.
Premium Line: Our Premium line stands as a beacon of excellence in the raspberry breeding industry. The varieties in this breeding line are curated through a rigorous selection process to deliver only the finest raspberry breeds. Each variety stands out for its exceptional firmness, vibrant taste, rich color and features a high-end-clamshell presentation that ensures no leakage. These varieties also offer an extended shelf-life, staying fresh 3 to 4 days longer than other ABB varieties and they are easy to pick. For growers, the Premium line is a strategic choice when focused on premium markets looking to double sales potential.
Easy-to-Grow Line: Our Easy-to-Grow line is the epitome of efficiency and versatility in raspberry production. Varieties in this breeding line are selected for high-yield and designed to thrive in different climate conditions. Growers can take advantage of low plant density, they can expect resilient plants and a high-yielding harvest, while saving on plant material. Our Easy-to-Grow line is adaptable, perfect for all growers ranging from novices to highly-skilled professionals.
Winter Line: Our Winter line offers raspberry growers an excellent opportunity to capitalize on the winter production season and year-round production capabilities. Varieties in the Winter line requires no chill to thrive and has no sensitivity to cold. This breeding line opens a high-value production window when raspberries are typically scare, allowing growers to extend their harvest season and tap into early market opportunities
By addressing the diverse needs of growers—whether it’s premium quality for high-end markets, ease of cultivation for operational efficiency or winter-ready varieties for off-season production—our breeding lines provide flexibility and profitability to growers everywhere.
CPVO: How do you perceive the role of biodiversity in the future of plant genetics, and how can the CPVO system aid in its protection and promotion?
Advanced Berry Breeding: Biodiversity plays a crucial role in the future of plant genetics, particularly in light of climate change and the shifting of production areas away from traditional markets. To ensure plant resilience and adaptability to diverse climates, cultivation methods and grower needs, maintaining a high level of genetic variation in our breeding program and portfolios is essential. Moreover, evolving challenges such as restrictions on chemical use, water availability, nitrogen limitations and increasing consumer demand for low-residue products further highlight the need for tolerance and resistance to both biotic and abiotic stresses. Developing genetics that meet these needs requires the combination and recombination of diverse genetic sources into each variety, ensuring its relevance to the target market. The CPVO system aids significantly in this endeavor by providing a framework for the protection and recognition of plant varieties, encouraging innovation and supporting the development of resilient and diverse genetics. Strong variation in breeding programs, safeguarded by robust intellectual property systems, is key to achieving these goals.
CPVO: In what ways is ABB taking proactive measures to adapt to the environmental challenges brought about by climate change?
Advanced Berry Breeding: At ABB, we recognize climate change, alongside market changes, as a critical factor shaping the future of the global raspberry market. One major impact of these changes is the shift in production areas from traditional regions like the UK, Germany, and Northern Europe to southern regions such as Morocco and Spain, as well as Eastern European countries like Poland and Bulgaria.
To address these evolving needs, we cultivate and select our varieties under highly challenging and discriminative conditions, focusing on low-input systems that require minimal fertilizers, water and plant protection chemicals. As part of this approach, we intentionally simulate extreme climate conditions within our infrastructure to encourage natural selection among our plants. This process ensures that only the most resilient varieties advance within our breeding program, supplying growers with plants capable of thriving in challenging environments.
Additionally, we prioritize varieties that perform well under sustainable growing methods, such as the use of beneficial insects, bacteria and fungi to promote plant growth and protection. Our approach ensures that varieties thriving in these demanding conditions will excel under standard grower conditions, setting our growers up for success.
Beyond field selection, we are also advancing molecular tools to identify genetic groups and sources that form the foundation of "climate-change-ready" genetics. While these tools do not guarantee success on their own, they add an essential layer of precision and strength to our decision-making process, reinforcing our breeding program's adaptability to environmental challenges.