September 2024 saw GPG sign exclusive strawberry licences for all of the legacy strawberry varieties from the University of California, Davis.

These contracts cover 12 protected varieties across 21 territories. This followed the well-documented termination of the previous international master licence contracts for the legacy strawberry varieties in May 2024.

The list of varieties includes: Benicia, Camarosa, Camino Real, Fronteras, Merced, Petaluma, Ventura, Albion, Cabrillo, Monterey, Portola and San Andreas for the following territories: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, EU, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Peru, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, Uruguay.

Clearly as a business, we are delighted and indeed honoured to be adding these varieties to the UCD – Royal Royce, Valiant, Moxie, Victor and Warrior already under our management.

With the addition of these varieties, it has been a busy few months travelling to many countries meeting the nurseries, growers, distributors and lawyers. Maintaining the supply chain of these legacy varieties is crucial to all stakeholders in each country.

To give an example of the importance of these legacy varieties to the strawberry industry, South America is approximately 90% dependent on UC Davis varieties. The transition to the newer genetics will clearly add increased value in terms of productivity, fruit quality and consumer experience to all markets. In addition, new markets are being opened up and the sharing of industry and plant propagation techniques between continents is helping to drive improvements.

The strawberry industry continues to grow in every country in which we operate affording terrific opportunities for improved plant quality, better varieties and overall improvements to the consumers’ purchasing experience.

San Andreas still dominates the day-neutral marketing in many countries, we will see this challenged in the short term by Royal Royce, Valiant and Moxie. Following this, we will start to trial the NEW (launching soon) day-neutral types from the upcoming UC Eclipse series – Eclipse, Golden Gate and Keystone with our international clients.

All early indications in the short-day market are showing Víctor and Warrior taking strong positions in many territories with all eyes on the NEW (launching soon) short-day varieties from the UC Eclipse series – Surfline and Monarch.

My view is that the UC Davis programme is in the strongest position it has been in for many years. Supported by industry-leading breeders and implementing cutting-edge science, I see the dominant position the University of California has increasing further its market share in the coming years.