EUBerry-Improvement of berry production, quality and nutritional value

SUMMARY

The main objective of the EUBerry project is to provide the necessary knowledge and tools to facilitate development of high quality, consumer-desirable fresh berry fruits of high nutritional quality optimal for human health at a competitive cost. The further objective is the development and validation of a set of tools to improve competitiveness of European berry production and consumer accessibility to berry fruits. The EUBerry platform will be developed and validated by using strawberry and raspberry and blueberry as model crop species. Additionally, specific critical points related to improvement of berry fruit quality and reduction of production costs will be considered also for currants and blackberries. This project will apply the most recent technical advances in:

a) Identifying germplasm of the main berry fruit genera appropriate for sustainable production throughout the EU, with respect to fruit quality and environmental adaptation and expanding use of modern breeding strategies to accelerate the release of new berry fruit cultivars into the future;

b) Ensuring and expanding high-quality production systems to improve availability of high-quality fresh berries for consumers by focusing on the modern cultivation techniques for berry season extension, on adaptation to different cultivation conditions and systems, as well as to climate change, and on reducing the impact on environment in different European regions;

c) Developing and applying validated methods to control and maintain fruit nutritional quality, improving shelf-life of fresh berries and increasing their availability to consumers;

d) Developing economic studies to verify the impacts of the new technologies in increasing berry economic viability, farmer and consumer attractiveness;

e) Disseminate and communicate the results to research scientists, academia, technical services, growers, market organizations, consumers, food industries, health authorities and regulatory and legislative authorities.

BUDGET: €2.999.999,00