South Africa-based Westfalia Fruit put a spotlight on its research and development efforts for the avocado industry at the recent Fruit Logistica expo in Berlin.
Westfalia Fruit is the world’s largest private investor in avocado research, according to a news release. The company’s research efforts are based in South Africa and consist of in-house researchers, scientists and technicians, the company said.
The program focuses on rootstocks, reducing inputs and continuous development and exploration, according to the release. The company has recently added Solomon Ntladi, a rootstock breeder based in South Africa, the release said.
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For more than 40 years Westfalia has been researching disease-tolerant clonal rootstocks to develop superior avocado tree health and yields, in varying local conditions, that require minimal external inputs, the company said.
“We’ve had ongoing success with existing avocado rootstocks such as Latas and Dusa, which offer high root-rot tolerance and higher yields,” Johnathan Sutton, group safety and environment executive at Westfalia, said in the release. “Dusa also offers some salinity tolerance and it’s been the top seller among clonally propagated rootstocks worldwide with more than 1.5 million Dusa trees sold annually.”
The release said Leola and Zerala are new rootstocks that were introduced to the market in 2020. With these, Westfalia can support growers with higher-yielding rootstocks developed to suit a range of specific growing conditions around the world, the release said.
Westfalia’s work also includes research into reducing synthetic fungicides in the harvesting process, with research focused on breeding plant genetics to be more tolerant to pests and diseases, as well as plant-based treatments, the release said.
Irrigation, feeding, and husbandry techniques are also continuously questioned and examined to determine best practices for tree health, yield, quality and the environment, the release said.
