Late Autumn Winter Spring strawberries for profit and consumer appeal - 2008/09

Abstract

Strawberries are delicious fruit with national production valued at about $250m.There are two major production periods, the „Late Autumn Winter Spring‟ (LAWS)period focused on SE Queensland; and remaining production period focused in Southern states with a smaller focus north of Perth WA. The necessary profitability in the competitive global market can be increased by cultivars that: minimise plant losses, labour requirements, variations in labour requirement, and maximise pack-out percentage, consumer appeal, enjoyment and choice in the supply chain. Our strategic one year LAWS project was developed to achieve a „business as usual work‟ approach while strategically aligning national longer term research efforts and priorities, embracing applicable frontier technologies and using information in a smart manner to develop new cultivars. The program was initiated to produce: a new breeding project proposal; at least one cultivar released to final testing stage; and documented progress toward a suite of new strawberry cultivars with improved production characteristics and high consumer acceptance and suitable for planting in all relevant Australian production areas.