Major blueberry investment

Excitement is brimming in the Global Plant Genetics team with the purchase of the global licences for 3 of the world's most exciting blueberry varieties from the University of Georgia; Sweet Duchess, Maverick, and Gladiator.

The varieties were bred by Dr. Scott NeSmith whose program has firmly established itself as world-class delivering yield, earliness, and flavour as the 3 main attributes. The deal was concluded in early March after a number of years of international evaluation of the 3 varieties. 

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We are seeing evergreen production on varieties such as Maverick producing an average of 4.78 kg per plant in commercial plantations, 16 months after planting. This is simply outstanding and creates huge interest based on yield and flavour from major blueberry companies in low-chill/ evergreen growing regions.We strongly expect this variety to be competing in the top 3 blueberry varieties in the world in the next 3-5 years. 

Great flavour, size, and yield, are similarly experienced in the blueberry varieties Gladiator and Sweet Duchess. The limitation to growth is the availability of plant material for all these varieties, however our international licence holders are working hard to overcome this. ''Forward planning for growers wanting access will be crucial'' said Rupert Hargreaves.

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