The Fall Creek Field + Forum 2025 took place on March 11 in the Spanish province of Seville, and it served the company to showcase both its new varieties from the Fall Creek Collection program and its future selections. These all share the characteristics that the company pursues in all genetic lines: good sizes, good flavor, firmness and crunchiness, and optimum post-harvest shelf life so that the fruit can be shipped from the most distant production regions to the most distant consumer markets.
Click here to see photos from the event.
The Seville Center is one of the three that Fall Creek has in the EMEA region, together with the one in the Netherlands and South Africa. Soon the company will also have new facilities in Morocco. Together with the other nurseries in America and China, they have a total of more than 150 hectares of nurseries devoted to blueberry plant production in the world.
AzraBlue variety, from Fall Creek Collection.
The hosts were Teun Leenders, Commercial Manager for EMEA at Fall Creek, and Paul Nselel, Fall Creek's Chief Commercial Officer. They welcomed the attendees to the event, which started with a blind tasting of different blueberry varieties. These could be evaluated by the attendees through surveys that could be accessed via QR codes.
Mark David, Vice President of Fall Creek; Paul Nselel, Chief Commercial Officer, and Teun Leenders, Commercial Manager for EMEA at Fall Creek.
Two of the varieties at the tasting, as it turned out, were AzraBlue and FCM 14-057, both from the Collection program. They received the best scores from attendees.
This was followed by a visit to the greenhouses where different varieties are grown, including those with medium and low cold requirements from the Collection program, which are ideal for cultivation in Huelva.
Félix and José Rufo (in the photo), from Fall Creek, gave a tour of the greenhouses, explaining the characteristics of the different varieties.
AzraBlue, an early variety with very low cold requirements, was one of the most highly rated varieties at the tasting and attendees were surprised with it during the tour of the greenhouses.
Another of the varieties that attracted a lot of attention due to its size and appearance, as well as its flavor, as it was possible to taste the blueberries by picking them straight from the plants, was AtlasBlue.
Blueberries of the AtlasBlue variety.
After the visit to the greenhouses, it was time for the technical presentations in which the Fall Creek team outlined some fundamentals about the company's work and its strategy for future developments. When it comes to genetics, the focus is going to be on pink fruit (already marketed in the U.S.), plants with lower water requirements, or seedless blueberries. They are also developing guides to allow growers to obtain the highest yield from each variety.
The other big winner at the tasting was the FCM 14-057 variety.
One of its key goals between now and 2030 is to achieve the next revolution in the blueberry industry: varieties adapted to mechanized harvesting. However, before reaching the end of this period, the company will have some releases in the FCE21 line, and it gave a preview of these to those attending the event.
One of the most promising materials in Applied Research is a jumbo-sized and very firm early selection (January-peak in May) with 45 days of shelf life and a productivity of 7 kg in the first year. There's also a mega-jumbo-sized medium-late selection (peak in May) with 120 days of shelf life and a productivity of 8 kg in the first year.
These varieties will help achieve greater segmentation of the blueberry supply in the market and encourage the category's growth. They will also help face the greatest challenges ahead for Huelva's blueberry: competition from third countries, the availability of water and the scarcity and high cost of labor.
