A BLOSSOMING FUTURE AWAITS THE SOUTH AFRICAN APRICOT INDUSTRY

The conventional apricot breeding programme at ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij started in 1950 at Bien Donné Experimental Farm (a traditionally non-apricot region). The main constraint in breeding new apricot cultivars is cold storage ability for the export market. Apricots are shipped to Europe and thus have to survive a cold storage period (4 weeks at -0.5°C and 7 days at 10°C) in order to be an attractive fresh fruit product from South Africa on the shelves of UK and European supermarkets. A further constraint is the relatively warm and dry winter in the Western Cape that negatively affects growth, fruit set and eating quality. Since 1998 a new focus has been placed on cold storage ability, adaptability to the changing climate (low chilling) and the breeding of interspecies (especially apricot x plum crosses). An average of 60 000 hand pollinations were made annually, of which 3 500 seedlings were planted annually, to address predetermined and industry related objectives. The first trees of the new generation apricots came into bearing during the 2005 season and a total of 16 very promising selections were made. These selections were made according to fruit set and pomological attributes (precocity, taste, size, colour development, appearance and fruit shape). Cold storage and processed abilities are currently under evaluation. If these hybrids perform well, they will be planted in semi-commercial trials to evaluate the export and market potential.