Flavia strawberry draws strong interest in Spain
From Italy’s CIV strawberry breeding programme comes the Flaviapvr variety, which is particularly suited for integrated and organic cultivation and is attracting growing interest for the Flaviapvr variety in Spain.
The test plantings are confirming the variety’s good performance, from both a farming and a commercial standpoint, and major groups are already scheduling pilot plantings for next year that will have good commercial impact.
Produced at the CIV (Consorzio Italiano Vivaisti) Research Centre, located in San Giuseppe di Comacchio in the Emilia-Romagna region, Flaviapvr is an early variety characterised by:
- high resistance to powdery mildew and leaf and root diseases in general,
- Suitability for tired soils, with no need for fumigation,
- good adaptability to replanting and organic or low environmental impact cultivation,
- excellent flavour – very sweet, low acidity,
- long-lasting and intense perceived sweetness,
- high percentage of superior quality fruits,
- very early harvest,
- BRIX: 8.8 -11.5,
- excellent firmness and shelf-life.
The Flaviapvr strawberries join other varieties such as the Clerypvr (a leader in France, Central and Northern Europe and some of the most highly farmed countries in the East), Jolypvr (highly appreciated in Belgium) and Muranopvr (which became the benchmark variety for Sainsbury’s UK) as evidence of the efficacy of the strawberry breeding programme at CIV.
The programme has been operating since 1984 on four lines of research:
- strawberries for the Mediterranean temperate climate,
- the continental climate,
- remontant strawberries,
- varieties suitable for industrial processing.
The use of classic, GMO-free techniques and the development of new varieties that can guarantee high production of top quality fruits, along with the natural rusticity and high vigour of the plants, are the CIV’s primary goals to offer national and international markets not just quality but the best in environmental sustainability.
The Flaviapvr plant – thanks to its inherent vigour and rusticity – is characterised by production with a low environmental impact (e.g. low carbon footprint), which makes it particularly suited to integrated and organic, as well as conventional, cultivation.
CIV chairman Pier Filippo Tagliani said the CIV stands out for its development of new strawberry varieties that meet high environmental sustainability requirements.
“Our goal is to give an increasingly sensible and effective response to customers’ growing need for quality products in environmental/health, social and economic terms, and fully satisfy the entire supply chain, from producer to end customer,” he said.
