Breeding
a
COT INTERNATIONAL
In our selection of varieties, we focus on eating quality. As committed hybridizers, each cross is made to produce tasty fruit that consumers will love.
Our No. 1 objective: eating quality
Apricots
In our apricot breeding programme, we pay meticulous attention to a diverse range of criteria to ensure exceptional fruit.
Self-fertility, a key characteristic, promotes successful pollination without depending on other varieties. Disease resistance and tolerance enhance crop sustainability, ensuring reliable production.
Ripening times are strategically planned to offer a continuous supply of fruit, adapted to different harvesting seasons.
Agronomic traits, such as ease of cultivation and productivity, are carefully assessed to support farmers.
Adaptation to different climates and geographical conditions is a priority, ensuring that varieties are robust in a variety of environments.
The firmness of the fruit is optimised to withstand handling while retaining a pleasant texture in the mouth.
Size We try to select varieties with high size and production potential, in order to limit thinning and therefore production costs, and obtain maximum tonnage in 2A.
We also offer varieties with a variety of skin colours. Bi-coloured fruit, red apricots but also white apricots.
We take all these criteria into account to offer varieties that meet the needs of both growers and consumers.
Cherries
Our approach to cherry selection highlights distinctive criteria to guarantee an exceptional taste experience and first-rate agronomic performance.
The main focus is on eating quality, measured by high brix levels, for sweet, tasty cherries that delight the taste buds.
The attractive red colour is not just aesthetic, but also an indicator of optimum ripeness. Self-fertility is a key asset, promoting successful pollination independent of the proximity of other varieties and therefore regular production.
We also aim for cherries of large size (>30mm), meeting market requirements and offering generous fruit.
Our commitment to season-long production is reflected in the development of a range of varieties to produce quality fruit from the beginning to the end of the season.
Cracking tolerance and good firmness are crucial aspects in ensuring optimum quality and durability during handling and storage.
In summary, our selection criteria reflect our commitment to providing cherries that combine exceptional taste quality, visual appeal, consistency of production, and organoleptic characteristics that meet the needs of growers and the desires of consumers.
Plums
Our plum selection process is based on rigorous criteria to ensure an exceptional taste experience and optimum agronomic performance. With eating quality at the forefront, we look for fruit with rich aromas, creating an unrivalled sensory experience.
We particularly favour varieties with yellow and red flesh, which offer a diversity of nuances and a unique palette of flavours.
This meticulous selection aims to satisfy the most demanding palates by offering plums with distinctive taste characteristics.
As well as flavour, our selection criteria include interesting agronomic performances, including disease resistance, productivity and environmental adaptability.
The plums selected meet high standards in terms of good sizing, ensuring appreciable uniformity for growers.
The firmness of the plums is a fundamental aspect, optimised to withstand handling while preserving a pleasant texture in the mouth.
In addition, we pay particular attention to post-harvest shelf life, ensuring that our plums remain fresh and tasty for a prolonged period after harvest.
In this way, our meticulous selection aims to create plums of superior quality, combining exceptional flavour, robust agronomic performance and post-harvest durability.
The selection in detail
In our experimental orchards, our hybridisation programme targets three key species: Apricot, Cherry and Plum. Each variety is carefully selected and studied according to precise criteria. Planted at a rate of two trees per variety in our experimental orchards, the best varieties are identified. Once they have been selected, they are grown on a commercial scale in a dedicated orchard to assess their real agronomic performance. Our demonstration orchard invites visitors to discover these varieties under authentic growing conditions. At the same time, the diversity of our selection can be seen in full bloom, with three trees per variety, at experimentation stations and on the premises of privileged customers.
Selection process
We monitor the entire production process, from flowering to harvesting. Meticulous recording of dates, flowering, anomalies, fruit set and thinning. Assessment of tree type, habit, vigour and factors influencing fruiting. Monitoring of ripening with dates, production and harvesting. Precise laboratory analysis of the fruit, including 1st category rate, size distribution, firmness and sugar content. Our Tasting Club provides commercial feedback, regularly sending samples to buyers for relevant advice throughout the season.
Variety distribution
After selection, the trees are propagated by nurseries approved by COT INTERNATIONAL. In collaboration with CTIFL, cloning, indexing and certification of the varieties are carried out. Experimentation, carried out in different regions and at growers' premises, refines our technical understanding of each variety. An exhaustive variety sheet summarises all the technical characteristics.
For the commercial aspect, visits to mature orchards are organised, if possible in different production areas. We take part in trade fairs such as SITEVI, MACFRUT, FRUIT LOGISTICA and FRUIT ATTRACTION to promote our varieties around the world.
Today, our varieties are planted in some thirty countries around the world and produced by hundreds of growers who have placed their trust in us.
Protection of varieties
Each selected variety is protected at Community level by the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO). This plant variety certificate (C.O.V.) gives the holder exclusive rights to produce, propagate and market the variety. Anyone wishing to propagate, plant trees and produce fruit from a C.O.V. variety must request authorisation from the variety's publisher. They must also use the variety denomination that has been assigned to the variety. This obligation continues to apply even after the Community plant variety right has expired. For countries outside the European Union, we apply to each country for a national plant variety certificate.
To date, we have protected more than 50 varieties of apricot, cherry and plum.
