The strong partnership between CEP INNOVATION and INRAE has many advantages for both organizations as well as for fruit growers.
Indeed, the main objective of this partnership between the French public and the private sector is based on the implementation of a sustainable orchard and ensuring quality production for professional fruit growers.
The monitoring of the program is carried out jointly by INRAE and CEP INNOVATION. The main objective is obviously to guide selection to create new varieties that best meet the current and future needs of arboriculture sector.
In fact, INRAE is responsible for so-called fundamental research work. It includes notably the studies on the inheritance of traits of interest adapted to each of the species concerned : resistance to pests, tree architecture, regularity of production, fruit quality (organoleptic quality, color, texture , resistance to cracking, post-harvest evolution etc.). INRAE also aims at combining these traits into prototypes in a pre-breeding approach.
This work is accompanied by the search for reliable molecular markers, robust, in relation to the traits of interest and by methodological developments in order to make the selection more effective (selection assisted by markers and / or genomic selection).
INRAE thus gives CEP INNOVATION the benefit of the latest scientific progress of one of the most advanced public institutes in the world for the improvement of fruit species, and makes available for the profession the genetic resources for which INRAE also ensures the maintenance.
In return, CEP INNOVATION is directly involved in the co-monitoring and funding of breeding programs and also deals with validation, final selection of plant material and its dissemination throughout the whole fruit growing sector.
