Almost 500 people filled the Ifema Convention Center during the Avocado Congress held on the day before the opening of Fruit Attraction. The congress, convened by the World Avocado Organisation (WAO), focused on the difficult situation of the avocado due to the drought; the complicated maritime logistics and imports; the role of the WAO and its actions to encourage consumption, as well as retail trends and growth opportunities for this fruit in Europe.
Global avocado trade reached a new record last season. Javier Cano, director of Green Motion Avocados and executive of Eurosemillas, attributed much of this success to Rudolph Hass' discovery in 1936 of the variety that now has his name. Luna -which bears fruits that are identical to Hass- "will take us out of that comfort zone" and "allow the sector to continue growing" based on new disruptive concepts, he said. He was referring to the traditional role given to B-flower varieties (such as Bacon, Fuerte, and Zutano), whose fruits have a residual value and are used only as pollinators of the main variety, usually Hass, to increase its production. "Luna could reverse the roles. It's the first B-flower variety that is the main variety and can be pollinated by other A-flower varieties - such as Hass, Lamb Hass, Gem, or Pinkerton - to increase the profitability of the farm as a whole," he said. This is, in fact, what is happening in many of Luna's first Spanish and Californian plantations, where this variety accounts for a majority percentage of the farm's trees.
"Luna has a small, very upright tree. For each Hass tree, there could be more than two Luna trees. It keeps the fruit well protected inside the canopy, comes into production very early, has an exaggerated pollen production, and its fruit -which is indistinguishable from the Hass avocado and paid at the same price- hangs on the tree for more than 5 months," Cano stated.
"It is another tool to move towards a more sustainable model, with more fruit per hectare, less water consumption per kilo, and lower labor costs. However, it's only the tip of the iceberg of the greatest research effort of the last 50 years," Cano said about the program he's leading. This is a new generation of avocados that will be launched on the market in the coming years: two of them will extend the harvest period by two months and the third - given its spectacular flavor - could be marketed as a gourmet variety. In addition, Green Motion Avocados has 5 rootstocks that will extend the areas suitable for production: dwarfing rootstocks or rootstocks that are resistant to Phytophthora, high temperatures, drought, or salinity conditions.
For more information: www.eurosemillas.com/es