By Planasa

Adelita, a raspberry variety developed by Planasa and launched in 2012, maintains a leading position in the winter segment, thanks not only to its production in this specific window but also to the yields it is offering. Last season closed with a record average of 15 tonnes of fruit per hectare, which has been marketed all over the world.

Hamid El Maloui, Project Manager Vitablue

Despite the particularly adverse weather conditions last season in the main production areas, Adelita continues to be the best-performing variety in the winter season. According to VitaSouss, one of the main raspberry growers in Morocco: “Adelita has yielded up to 15 tonnes per hectare in hydroponic, and 13-14 tonnes depending on the farm”, confirms Hamid El Maloui, Project Manager Vitablue.

Adelita's planting plasticity and productive capacity continue to be of interest to growers in different geographical areas, especially Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Mexico, where has a strong positioning due to its easy agronomic management and marketing.

Hamid explains why: “Adelita performs very well. It’s pretty adapted to the area where we grow in Agadir, the South of Morocco and we still can achieve good yields. We are very satisfied because Planasa’s team have helped us to improve the yields. The weekly farm visits, and the proximity of the team, especially Safwane Allem – Planasa’s Sales Director in Morocco-have meant a lot to us. They have been very close providing technical support on operations, fertigation, and so on, this has made us improve, definitely”.

For VitaBlue this is the third season with Adelita. In two years, they have tripled the area planted with raspberries, growing from 32 to 95 hectares, almost 90% is dedicated to Adelita, and the other 10% to Pink Hudson®.

“We grow Planasa genetics in the 100% of our raspberry surface”, confirms Hamid, and adds: “These are good genetics. Vigorous and yielding varieties”.

The main Adelita growers around the world are receiving plants from Planasa's nurseries these weeks to start a new season that will respond to the growing demand from the main global retailers.

New genetics to come: Pink Hudson

Planasa continues to work on obtaining and developing new varieties and this season can be considered the launch year for Pink Hudson®, a primocane variety with very good agronomic qualities as well as organoleptic conditions that have aroused the interest of the main European retailers.

“The new genetics are important, the raspberry market is looking for flavor, for Premium varieties. We believe this is the only way to improve sales”, states VitaBlue’s Project Manager.

Regarding the new Pink Hudson, VitaBlue explains: “We need a variety with two cycles to complete Adelita. We want to start early and be produced from the beginning of October till mid-June. This means gaining almost two months, one at the beginning and the end, and covering a bigger production cycle. And it also has good flavor. We say the flavor is the fuel of sales”.

Planasa has also expressed the optimism that both the R&D team and the sales teams have in the variety's potential, both in terms of the response from growers and the target markets.

More information:

https://www.vitasouss.com/

https://www.vitablue.ma

https://planasa.com/