NIAB EMR and Meiosis Ltd Announcement

26th May 2020

The joint managements of NIAB EMR and Meiosis Ltd today announce details of a new collaborative working relationship.

The agreement gives NIAB EMR immediate worldwide control and management of all current and future marketing and licensing rights for the varieties which to date had been managed by Meiosis.  Instead, the parties will together explore licencing opportunities in countries further afield, not currently growing varieties from the Malling berry breeding programmes. To support this transition, Meiosis will continue the role of royalty collection for a fixed period of time.

Commenting on the new agreement, NIAB EMR Managing Director Professor Mario Caccamo explained “We have a very ambitious programme of future research and development for our berry breeding and having direct management of the varieties gives us the ability to invest and allocate resource in a more dynamic and responsive way.  Likewise, we see the opportunity to work with Meiosis and their evolving specialisation on variety assessment, promotion and delivery in more challenging licensing territories as key to fully leveraging the potential of our variety development programmes.”

Steve McVickers, CEO of Meiosis highlighted the evolving role of variety promoters and optimism for the future “Meiosis recognise that breeders increasingly want to play a bigger role in the market development of their varieties, particularly in their home markets.  The opportunities in international markets are equally interesting but pose challenges that call for more specialist skills and experience.  This agreement is part of Meiosis’ repositioning itself as a leading variety manager and plant material provider in developing markets.  Our integrated structure that includes management and production of Mother Plant and High Health stock, root and plant propagation and world leading expertise makes us a very desirable partner for both breeders, international growers and fruit marketeers.”

NIAB EMR is the UK’s leading horticultural research organisation based in East Malling, Kent. Its varieties dominate the country’s retail strawberry shelves with Malling Centenary being the most successful June bearer currently in the market.  Latest releases including strawberries Malling Champion, Malling Allure and Raspberries Malling Bella and Malling Charm are showing great potential.

Meiosis is part of the Nuclear Stock Association Group. designing and instigating development programmes that will maximise commercial potential of new varieties across the globe. The Nuclear Stock Association Group, through its Meiosis and Terraplanta subsidiaries, specialises in the international management of IP, High Health planting stock and propagation.

 

For more information contact:

NIAB EMR: Licensing@niab.com

Meiosis: meiosis@meiosis.co.uk

Meiosis working from home

Please be informed that Meiosis has decided to take the necessary precaution and asked its staff to work from home because of the outbreak of Covid-19.

If you know the mobile number of the member of staff you want to speak to, please contact them directly, if not, please send an email to meiosis@meiosis.co.uk and your message will be forwarded to the right person.

Meiosis Team

Meiosis at TSW – Poland 2020

The jubilee X edition of TSW in Nadarzyn, which took place on 15-16 January 2020, was once again a memorable experience for all the participants. 391 exhibitors, including Meiosis Ltd, were kept on their toes all the time due to the large number of visitors – 10 thousand on the first day and 6 thousand on the second – record figures that surprised even the organisers.  The character of the event is turning more and more from local to international, with many visitors and exhibitors coming from neighbouring (East and West) countries but also from distant territories such as Egypt, India or Kazakhstan. The Strawberry Conference that took place on the first day attracted many fruit growers seeking especially new early and late varieties suitable for the rapidly changing climate.

Thanks to the organisers for preparing such a successful event, we do hope to meet our licensees and friends during the coming year and at next year’s edition.

Meiosis Team

Meiosis Ltd announces new C.E.O.

Meiosis, the UK based soft fruit variety promoter, licensing and protection
company has announced the appointment of Steve McVickers as their new
C.E.O..
Steve joins from Latin American berry and cherry producer Giddings Fruit, where
he was Global Chief Commercial Officer. At Meiosis, Steve will be responsible
for leadership of the three companies in the group: The Nuclear Stock
Association, Meiosis Limited and recently incorporated Terraplanta Limited, a
global technical investment company partnering with plant propagators around
the world.
During an extensive international fresh produce career, Steve served in
numerous commercial and management roles with Fresca Group (formally
M&W Mack) and was responsible for delivery of the UK’s largest greenhouse
project, Thanet Earth. Time living in Philadelphia resulted in the formation of
US based start-up marketeer Grower Services Inc. and subsequent roles back in
the UK including Managing Director at Capespan UK, the marketing arm for the
South African fruit producer and exporter.
Chris Woods, Chairman of Meiosis, commented on the appointment, “We are
delighted to have secured Steve for our leadership role. He joins us
with a wealth of experience in berry marketing across three important market
territories; UK & Europe, Asia and North America. We see the combination of
Steve’s skills dovetailing really well with the plant propagation experience in the
current Meiosis board and licencing specialisation in the Meiosis Technical
team. The promotion of breeders’ varieties is increasingly about offering a
complete supply proposition and Steve has an impressive track record for
commercial strategy and delivery, coupled with team organisation. We are all
looking forward to his leadership as we embark on our ambitious program for
development”.
Steve McVickers added “I’m very excited to be joining Meiosis Group. Variety
development in berries is at the forefront of defining the category’s
development and Meiosis has an enviable portfolio of breeding partners and
varieties with some really exciting new selections at advanced stage and set for
imminent release. I have been fortunate to work with leading retailers and
supply chains in many countries around the world and I am looking forward to
adding this commercial experience to the skills for which Meiosis is already well
known”.
For more information contact:
Myriam Mannering: myriam.mannering@meiosis.co.uk

Season’s Greetings

Wishing All our friends and customers a very joyful Christmas time and prosperous

New Year 2020.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Meiosis Team

Karlsruhe expoSE 2019

Our annual visit to the expoSE trade show in Karlsruhe was, as always, an enjoyable experience. Even more so when we saw much higher numbers of visitors and very busy exhibitors compared to last year. It was pointed out to us that the show was attended by many more visitors from Eastern European and Euro-Asian countries, who came to Germany in well-organised groups. Meiosis had meetings with many of our existing clients and also made a number of new contacts.

One of the current issues facing the soft fruit industry is the availability of labour required for harvesting. The show included the developments of not only effective fruit picking robots, but also of varieties which will be adapted to the new technology.

We are grateful to the organisers of the expoSE for a successful show, which has become an increasingly important annual event for those involved in soft fruit production and for Meiosis specifically, as it offers the opportunity to meet various stakeholders to our business and industry and to find out more about current challenges and opportunities towards building on our Intellectual Property services provision.

New Strawberry Varieties from New Fruits, Italy

Meiosis is a Master Licensee for strawberry varieties bred by New Fruits, one of Italy’s premier plant breeding companies.

Two new June bearing varieties have recently been added to our portfolio: Olympia and Tea.

Olympia (NF638)

  • Harvest date 2 days later than Elsanta
  • High yield
  • Large berry size
  • High % of Class 1 berries
  • Resistant to Verticillium wilt and crown rot (Phytophthora cactorum)

Tea (NF633)

  • Harvest date 4 days later than Elsanta
  • Excellent flavour with juicy texture
  • Large berry size
  • High % of Class 1 berries
  • Resistant to Verticillium wilt and crown rot (Phytophthora cactorum)

Meiosis has the rights to manage the trialling and licensing of Tea and Olympia in a territory that includes the following countries:

Canada; CIS countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan); South America; United Kingdom (non-exclusive).

 

If you would like information on availability of trials material, or propagation and sales licences please contact the Meiosis office (meiosis@meiosis.co.uk) .

Meiosis Team

Elegance – the tastiest fruit in a Polish comparison project.

A couple of months ago we shared with you information about a junebearer comparison project Strawberries in Tunnels which is taking place in Mr Konrad Kozakiewicz’s farm – Kozacka Truskawka https://meiosis.co.uk/industry-news/open-tunnel-day-in-poland/

We are now pleased to report that at the end of the first stage of this project, Elegance was named the tastiest fruit among the nineteen competitive varieties.

Full results can be found in the Polish magazine Jagodnik 6/2019 in an article ‘Best varieties of 2019 season’ by Mariusz Podymniak pp 21-25 (photo courtesy of Jagodnik).

Meiosis Team

Launch of Meiosis-licensed Malling™ Allure & Malling™ Champion at Fruit Focus 2019

Meiosis once again had a stand at the annual Fruit Focus event at NIAB EMR. Our location close to the entrance and neighbouring several plant propagators made us easy to find, and we enjoyed meeting many old friends and making new ones.

Stars of the show were the new strawberry releases from the East Malling Strawberry Breeding Programme (EMSBC) based at NIAB EMR, Malling™ Allure (a late season June-bearer), and Malling™ Champion (an everbearer).  Fruit quality and flavour was much appreciated by our visitors, and more details of the varietal characteristics can be found on our website.  The varieties were officially launched at the NIAB EMR stand with speeches by Robert Goodwill MP (Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food), Professor Mario Caccamo (Managing Director of NIAB EMR) and Chris Woods (Chairman of Meiosis). A splendid ice sculpture was commissioned to celebrate the event.

We also featured fruit of the strawberry varieties Malling™ Centenary, which is now firmly established as the UK’s favourite mid-season variety, and the new everbearer Malling™ Supreme, which we expect to launch next year.  Visitors were able to compare and contrast all four varieties, and we received an interesting range of opinions on which had the best and tastiest fruit, with Malling™ Centenary coming out top overall but with some close competition.

The Marionnet SAS primocane raspberry variety Paris was much appreciated for its firmness and flavour, and two new floricane varieties from Washington State University, Cascade Belle and Cascade Gem, also attracted favourable attention.

Adam Whitehouse, NIAB EMR at the Teagasc Berry Seminar April 25th 2019

Listen to Adam Whitehouse talking about Malling™ Centenary.