Meet the new avocado variety a half-century in the making

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, on a long quest for a better avocado recently released a new variety to growers in the global marketplace.

The university says that the Luna UCR variety is more than a half-century in the making and boasts great flavor, a rind that turns a tell-tale black when ripe and high postharvest quality. Growers, meanwhile, will benefit from a smaller tree size, allowing denser plantings for more efficient and safer harvesting and minimal pruning, according to a news release.

The varietal also produces a type of flower that makes it an efficient pollinizer for various avocado varieties, including the stalwart hass, the world’s leading avocado variety, the university said. Planting Luna UCRs intermingled with other varieties could help ensure good yields by increasing pollination rates, according to the release.

Developed by agricultural scientists at the University of California, Riverside, the Luna UCR is officially known as the BL516. The variety is protected under a pending patent that credits Mary Lu Arpaia, a UC Cooperative Extension horticulturist based at UCR, and her colleague Eric Focht, a UCR staff research associate in the Botany and Plant Sciences Department in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

Related news: Avocado unit sales surge 20% during St. Patrick’s Day promotions

The development of Luna UCR has been intergenerational, going back to the work of the late, pioneering plant scientist B.O. Bob Bergh in the 1950s, according to the release.

The Luna UCR variety will be marketed to growers globally through a partnership with Eurosemillas, SA, a company based in Spain that specializes in international marketing of proprietary crop varieties, the release said.

Under an agreement worked out by UCR’s Office of Technology Partnerships, Eurosemillas is the licensee of the variety. Eurosemillas has established partnerships with growers in 14 countries outside of the U.S. to grow the Luna UCR, according to the release.