The first apple adapted to warmer climates hits the market

It is red, sweet, crunchy and juicy, and it is adapted to warm climates like ours. It is the HOT84A1 variety and today, February 9, it has been presented to the world at the international FRUIT LOGISTICA fair, in Berlin, under its commercial name: Tutti. It is the fruit of more than twenty years of work, and it is the first registered seed fruit variety that has emerged from the Hot Climate Partnership (HCP), the only varietal improvement program in the world designed to face the challenges of producing apples and pears in hot climates. The objective of the HCP is to produce new varieties "better adapted to increasingly hot summers, and that satisfy the needs of producers, marketers and consumers", explains Joan Bonany, specialist in the Fruit Growing program at the Institute for Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA). The new variety has been evaluated in the IRTA experimental fields in Mollerussa (Lleida) and in La Tallada del Empordà (Girona), where temperatures can reach more than 40ºC in summer. Apart from the Tutti, the HCP has a range of apple and pear varieties in the pre-commercial phase, which once they hit the market "will cover a very wide range of harvest times and types of fruit" adds Bonany. The HCP has also been presented at the international FRUIT LOGISTICA fair in Berlin. Created in 2002, it arose as a result of the demand of the Catalan fruit producing sector that, due to the climatic conditions in our area, the apple and pear varieties had more difficulties in reaching optimal quality in terms of colour, texture and flavor. scent. The HCP is made up of IRTA, Plant & Food Research, a public research center in New Zealand, FruitFutur ?an association of the main fruit producing companies in Catalonia: Nufri, Actel, Fruits de Ponent and IGP Poma de Girona )? , which will lead the marketing of the new variety in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), and the company VentureFruit, which will be in charge of marketing this and new varieties in the rest of the world. ABOUT IRTA(Institute for Agrifood Researchand Technology) is a research institute dedicated to agrifood R&D in the fields of plant production, animal production, food industries, environment, global change and agrifood economics. The transfer of its scientific advances contributes to the modernization, competitiveness and sustainable development of the agricultural, food and aquaculture sectors, to the provision of healthy and quality food for consumers, as well as improving the well-being of the population. IRTA is attached to the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda (DACC) of the Generalitat de Catalunya and is part of the CERCA system.