Stone fruit production in Latvia - Cost 873

Fruit growing has old traditions in Latvia, and the climatic conditionsand soil are favorable for it, especially in the eastern regions of Latvia.Our fruits and berries may contain somewhat less sugar than thevarieties grown in the south, yet they have more aroma and organicacids, and significantly less pesticide sprayings are needed for theirgrowing.

History of fruit and berry growing in LatviaBefore the 2nd World War, successful development began in fruit growing:fruit and berry export was started.Collectivization and nationalization of farms interrupted this process. Largeextensive orchards were planted for the needs of the processing industry, so theareas of orchards and brutto yield increased rapidly at first. This process was spedup by the fast growth in the numbers of home garden owners. Yet the quality ofproduction was lacking.After the renewal of independence of Latvia in 1991, when the agriculturalreform was started, many large-sized orchards were split up and returned to theprevious landowners.A large number of rather small (10 to 20 hectares) farms were formed as aresult of the agricultural reform.Many have already recognized horticulture as one of the ways of successfuldevelopment.The importance of home gardening is decreasing. In fresh berry market,commercial production is already dominating, while commercial production ofpome and stone fruits still cannot meet the demand

On 2009 the data of Latvia Fruit-grower asociation show thatinvolved about 800 farms and use about 3000 ha in fruit industry9%9% 3% 3%42%12%22%1 to 3 ha 3 to5 ha 5 to 7 ha 7 to 10 ha10 to15 ha 15 to 20 ha >20 haBreakdown of farms by orchard areaAt present, small orchards (1 to 3 ha) are dominating.Only 6 % are larger than 15 ha.

23514622296921applepearsour cherrysweet cherryplumblack currant96red and white currantraspberry6275741 92122seabuckhtornblueberrycranberryArea of new orchardsin 1998 – 2007, haSince 1998, when subsidy payment started for orchardestablishment, the areas increased by 2650 ha. Apples and blackcurrants were the most planted crops.

The structure of fruit production• Fresh fruits and berries from commercial orchards for directconsuming in time of season:amount: ~1500 t berries and ~1000 t fruits;95 % - local market, 5 % - export• Fresh fruits for long store (mainly desert apples):amount: ~3000 t fruits; 95 % - local market, 5 % - export.• Fruits and berries for processing :amount: ~1000 t berries and 5000 t fruits; 70 % - export, 30 % -local processing enterprises. Main products for export are frozenberries and juice, apples.

The main problems in the development of fruitgrowing in Latvia- Ties between the growers and the food processors, as well as between thegrowers and the market.- The Latvian Fruit Growers' Association now works only as a publicorganization. Cooperatives are starting to develop, but slowly. Some foodprocessing plants have agreements with local growers, but others are importingraw material.- The quality of the product, especially of the tree fruits, is not always highenough. To improve quality, horticultural knowledge in the field of high qualityfruits must be widely spread. The varietals structure must be changed also.- Lack of modern fruit storage and processing facilities.- Risk-reducing growing technologies are not yet used enough.-The diversity of available means for plant protection is limited because of thesmall market.-Latvian producers lack resources for long term investment.

Fruit growing has high potential in Latvia•Fruit growing has already taken a stable place in the agriculturalproduction of Latvia.•In total 11 fruit crops are grown commercially, and their area hasincreased for 2650 ha during the last 10 years.•The production is diverse – fresh fruits and berries, various processedproducts. So in comparison with other spheres of agriculture fruit growingis less dependent on the large processing enterprises.•The income per ha is high (intensive orchards).•Original processed products have a wide perspective, developingprocessing at farms and small enterprises.•Market demand for local fruit production still is not satisfied.•Increasing consumer preference for locally grown fruits and theirproducts.

Fruit and berry processing- The largest processing enterprises which use also Latvian-grown rawmaterial make juices or juice concentrates, additives to ice-cream andyoghurt.- The amount apples sold for processing at present is decreasing, becausein the modern intensive orchards it is more profitable to produce dessertfruits.- Joining the EU stimulated the establishing of small and home processingenterprises which use not only the traditional fruits and berries, but alsonew crops with high nutritive value – seabuckthorn, Japanese quince,cranberry.- At the moment there are about 30 such enterprises in Latvia, whoseactivities help to diversify the processed products in the market.

The total area of cherry plantations is about 890 ha, of these 90 ha of sour and41 ha of sweet cherries have been planted for market production, using subsidiesfor orchard establishment.At present, only one sour cherry variety isbeing widely grown in Latvia - the local cultivar'Latvijas Zemais‘.Cherry plantations are established withmicropropagated plants, as well as trees budded onPrunus mahaleb seedlings and plants from selfrootedlayers.Better sour cherry varieties with firm fruit fleshand small stone are lacking.

The growers have some interest also in the planting of sweet cherry.The assortment is formed by Russian varieties - 'Iputj', 'BryanskayaRozovaya' and the Estonian 'Meelika' .The local cherries can not compete with theimported fruits in size, yet the consumers value themfor their good flavour.Sweet cherries at present are grown on P.mahaleband P. avium seedling rootstocks.As there is a lack of winter-hardy cultivars withhigh quality fruits, some work was done by sweetcherry breeding.Serious damage during the last years is caused bycherry fly.‘Iputj’

The total area of plum (mostly Prunus domestica) plantations is 980 ha, ofthese 57 ha have been planted for commercial production using subsidies fororchard establishment.• So far, Prunus cerasifera seedlings arebeing used as rootstocks for plums.• Plums are grown mostly for the freshmarket, and for this reason the plantations areestablished with a number of varieties ripeningalong an extended period of time, to supply themarket as long as possible.‘Lāse’• The area of 6 most popular plum varieties is 69% of the total area. An extremely early maturingdiploid variety is 'Kometa'. For commercialorchards, recommended varieties are also 'Victoria‘,‘Julius', 'Perdrigon', 'Stanley‘, Minjona’ and‘Lase’.• Recently, the Eurasia group of plums hasacquired interest ('Aleynaya', 'ZarechnayaRannaya' etc.).‘Kometa’

Four new Latvian plum and one – sweet cherry cultivarare prepared for the registration‘Paula’‘Lotte’‘Ance’‘Adele’‘Sonora’

Latvia State Institute ofFruit – GrowingGraudu str.1, Dobele, LV 3701www.lvai.lv

General informationThe Latvia State Institute of Fruit-Growing was established in 1956.Thepresent status was given to the Institute on May 2, 2006. At present it isunder the jurisdiction of the Latvian Ministry of Agriculture.At present (January 1, 2010) the Institute’s regular staff are 58 people, ofwhich 51 are full-time researchers and technicians, including:• doctors of sciences – 11 ( + 2 doctors of sciences work part-time)• masters of sciences – 12 ( int.al. 7 Ph students)The age of 16researchersis below 35.

General informationLatvia State Institute of Fruit-Growing has five research units:

General informationThe main tasks of the Institute are:•To provide scientific background and expertise for the workingoutand implementation of the development policy in fruit-growing•To work out recommendations for environment-friendly(integrated and organic) technologies in fruit growing, processingand storage•To develop models for commercial orchard management indifferent regions of Latvia•To perform breeding of fruit and berry varieties suitable toLatvian climate•To provide maintenance and sustainable use of fruit and berrygenetic resources•To work out scientific background for a system of the productionof healthy planting material in Latvia•To perform DUS (distinctness, uniformity, stability) testing of newcultivars bred in Latvia, Estonia, etc.

Fruit breeding and variety testingThe most important breeding programmein institute is apple breeding, since applesare the most important fruit crop in LatviaThe apple collection holds 700 varieties, clonesand hybrids (of them 176 Latvian origin).Breeder’s rights are protected for 13 applevarieties.In sweet cherry breeding programme introduced varieties which are hardyand productive in Latvia are used in hybridization with large-fruitedvarieties and self-fertility gene Sf donors. DNA markers are used tocharacterize sweet cherry genetic resources and breeding material.The GR collection includes 55 (23 of Latvian origin) sweet cherryvarieties and hybrids, and 37 sour cherry varieties and clones (22 ofLatvian origin).Registered cultivars: ‘Aija’, ‘Aleksandrs’, ‘Indra’, ‘Jānis’.

In the development of new domesticand diploid plum varieties, the mainaccent is laid on early maturing, winterhardinessof flower buds, fruit quality,self-fertility. In 1996 – 2001 a commonbreeding program with Sweden wascarried out. From this program result 4 areprepared for the registrationThe plum GR collection includes 120 domestic plum varieties and hybrids (25of Latvian origin), along with 64 diploid varieties and hybrids (26 of Latvianorigin).Registered cultivars: ‘Agrā Dzeltenā’, ‘Inese’, ‘Minjona’, ‘Zemgale’, Ļāse’.In apricot breeding and variety testing themain attention is paid to selection of varietieswith late flowering and high resistance to leafspot, as well as tolerance to trunk damage byfluctuating winter temperatures.The collection holds 36 genotypes of Latvianorigin.Registered cultivars: ‘Daiga’, ‘Lāsma’, ‘Velta’.

Breeding of Japanese quince(Chaenomeles) is done paying specialattention to winter hardiness of flower buds,early maturing of fruits, and high content ofbiologically active substances (organicacids, phenolic compounds, pectins, aromacomponents).3 Japanese quince cultivars ‘Rondo’,‘Darius’ and ‘Rasa’ are prepared forregistration.•The collection of pears is evaluated andextended, selection of advanced hybrids andvariety introduction are going on. The maintasks are: to select varieties with sufficientwinter-hardiness and with good fruit qualitywhich is maintained also after storage.

Small fruit breeding andvariety testingCrossing involves interspecific Ribeshybrids which are donors of resistance tomildew, bud mite and reversion virus.Joint breeding programme of blackcurrants was fulfilled with Swedish andLithuanian researchers during 1995-2002.Raspberry breeding is done for resistance todidimellosis and anthracnosis. The use of large– fruited gene L1 is started in the breedingsince 1985. The main problem of that gene isthe lack of stability after the propagation ofplants in vitro. The maximum weight of theberries is 8 – 10 g.

Research in genetics and molecular biologyMajor research interests of the unit can be roughly divided into the following areas:• Coordination of fruit and berry crop genetic resources maintenance, evaluation andcharacterization;• Introduction and utilization of molecular marker methods in the fruit and berrycrop breeding:• Introduction of gene- specific genetic markers in breeding – development ofbasis for Marker Assisted Selection (MAS).• Evaluation of genetic diversity using molecular markers.

Research in growing techniquesThe main aim of the research is the working out and improvement of orchardmanagement technologies for fruit and berry plantations. Trials and observationsare performed along the following lines:• Testing of new pome and stone fruit rootstocks in Latvia; testing of dwarfing pearrootstock suitability for use as inter-stocks; trials about the compatibility of thebest rootstocks with commercially grown and promising cultivars• Studies on the provision of best growing conditions in fruit and berryplantations:• regulation and maintenance of soil moisture, cultivation of soil in strips• fertilizing and providing of optimal agrochemical conditions to plants• Research in plant protection - in cooperation with scientists from Latvian PlantProtection Research Centre• Evaluation and screening of the suitability offruit crop varieties for different training systemsand tree shapes, different time of training.• Development of economically justified,environment-friendly (integrated andorganic) technologies for growing of fruit crops

Research in plant pathology and entomologyUnit of Plant pathology and entomology started its activities as Plant pathologylaboratory in summer 2006.Main tasks and lines of the research:The development of scientific and theoretical basis for economically viableand environment friendly (integrated and organic) fruit growingtechnologies which are based on research of harmful organisms in Latvianorchards.The development of methodicalbasis for establishing of the systemof certified planting material forfruit crops in Latvia.Diagnostics of insect pests anddiseases of fruit crops.

Processing, biochemical investigation andpostharvest managementTesting of the suitability of cultivars for various ways of processing anddevelopment of new products;Analyses of the biochemical content of traditional and untraditional fruitand berry crops and their processed products;Evaluation of fruit and berry quality in dependence of storage regimes(temperature, gas - CO2 and O2 concentration).

Applied research for fruit growing• Institute has developed very successful cooperationwith fruit and berry growers in Latvia. Our Institutewas the initiator of the Latvian Fruit Growers’Association founded in 1997. Institute is thecollective member of the Association. All newestinformation obtained by scientifical research, whichcan become useful for commercial growers, is passedon to the farmers with the help of the Association.• Seminars for farmers are organized regularly.• Institute organizes or participates in fruit and berryexhibitions in Dobele, Riga and other towns in Latvia.Our scientists provide consultations both at theInstitute and at farms.• Every year Farmers Days take place at Dobele inMarch and August, collecting numerous visitors.

As a Food and Agriculture Domain Committee memberI could say, that COST Action 873 is one of the mostsuccessful action, and during the last Annual ProgressConference in Prague the Brion’s presentation (report) wasthe best!I wish ou a successful meeting and also goodrelaxing in our country!

Thank you for your attention!