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.