Professor Carlo Fideghelli, President of the newly-formed Network technical and scientific committee, presented the Italian Variety Club (IVC) network during the Fiera del Levante in Bari.
Carlo Fideghelli
Table grapes are one of the most international, globalised and widespread products. Around twenty new selections have been introduced every year on the market since 1980 and the seedless varieties are getting increasingly popular.
The leading breeders worldwide are the US, South Africa, China and Israel. Italy is in the top 10. There are various techniques employed for varietal improvement - controlled crossbreed is still very popular, while free pollination is not widely as used as it is for other products, like stone fruit.
Public breeders were still in the majority in 2008, but now private ones may represent 35-40%, especially in Western countries. In the meantime, the number of seedless varieties used to produce other selections has also increased.
Prof. Fideghelli also recalled an anecdote dating back to 1967, when he met breeder John Weinberger. "At the time, people were still sceptical about introducing seedless varieties on the European market, while they were already popular in the US. Weinberger told me to put a bunch of seedless grapes and one of traditional grapes on the table without telling my guests and see what would happen."
Weinberger (in the photo above) was right. People preferred seedless grapes.
Fideghelli, however, also stressed that the creation of new traditional varieties is not useless, as people will still buy them. "Just think about what happened with nectarines. In the beginning, everybody thought they would replace peaches, but it did not happen."
He then went on to talk about genetic improvement, the various aspects of seedless grapes that have yet to be fully understood and the reasons to establish new breeding programmes.
If we consider that, nowadays, all new patented cultivars are available only at a charge, we can see how cultivating them is quite expensive. A new breeding programme, therefore, makes sense at an economic level and helps selecting grapes that have fewer adaptability problems.
"In addition, having exclusive competitive cultivars can be worthwhile in the era of globalisation. Just consider the success stories of Superior seedless grapes and Angeleno plums."