Three Chilean raspberry varieties have performed well under recent trials in Spain and Portugal, and now the license holder for the two countries is set to kick off commercial production. 

The varieties evaluated by the company Masiá Ciscar were Santa Teresa, Santa Clara and Santa Catalina - all developed under the Chilean Fruit Technology Consortium's raspberry breeding program.

The two entities signed an agreement in May 2016 which led to a field trial being established the same month.

The trial was aimed at evaluating the varieties in relation to cultivars already under production in the region, and the evaluation was carried out on plantings from different months last year.

Masiá Ciscar manager Enrique Masiá explained the work during the 2016-17 season had been focused on the agronomic assessment of the cultivars.

In a release, he said the Chilean varieties had performed far better than those currently grown in the countries.

He said the Santa Catalina variety was highly productive, with the first harvests from May to August surpassing 1.5 kilograms per plant. He added that the winter pruning appeared to have been successful, and had led to good production volumes now in the spring.

"The most interesting thing about these varieties is that we can make it work all year and achieve two harvests from the same plant."

The varieties also have a very large berry size and Brix levels higher than 9 degrees.

Santa Clara showed similar results during the evaluation, with a slightly higher Brix level but lower production on the plants that went in the ground in August. 

Santa Teresa, meanwhile, proved to also be highly productive, but Ciscar said it had not performed as well as the other two and further evaluation would therefore be needed.

Ciscar explained that for the 2017-18 season the company was due to grow the varieties over 19 hectares, if it could receive enough plant material.

"For that we are working directly with the Chilean nurseries and the Consortium," he said.

"We plan to produce around 120 metric tons (MT) of fruit in the autumn, from October until the end of November. Of that amount, half will be Santa Catalina and the other half Santa Clara. 

"In addition, we hope to produce another 130MT of Santa Catalina variety in winter and another 120MT of both varieties in the spring."

He added that summer production of the Santa Catalina variety means the company could supply the berry year-round.

"Next year will be the big push into the market for the new varieties and if consumer acceptance is good, the idea would be to open them up to growers to plant for the 2018-19 season," he said.

"However, we still have not decided under which formula this will be, since we need to discuss the details with the Chilean Fruit Technology Consortium."

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