A long and costly process
Breeding fruit crops is a very long process, as it takes many years to study the behaviour of varieties and to obtain the first fruits. It takes an average of 20 years to create a new plant variety, even if improvements in genetic science have helped to reduce the timeline.
Plant breeding steps
Plant breeding begins with the choice of parents. These could be existing plant varieties (commercial varieties, old varieties or related crops) with interesting traits (e.g. resistance to a pest, organoleptic qualities, etc.).
These parents are then crossed via controlled pollination. The fruits of these crosses are harvested, and the seeds (pips or stones) are sown. The seedlings are then raised to be planted in orchards and observed for several years.
After this stage, the most promising hybrids are multiplied to be evaluated across various sites corresponding to different soils and climate conditions.
To ensure good plant choice, several trees of each hybrid variety are grafted and observed in various evaluation sites between 5 and 10 years, depending on the crops.
From selected seed (pips or stones) to commercial variety
After several years of observation, the breeder can choose to protect his new variety by a Plant Variety Certificate (PVP) obtained after validation of the DUS test and guaranteeing that the new variety is Distinct, Uniform and Stable. For fruit crops, this process takes from 4 to 6 years.
The protection granted by the PVP falls within the legal framework of Intellectual Property and guarantees the holder a protection of his rights for a period of 25 to 30 years, depending on the crop species. After this period, the plant varieties enter the public domain.
Unlike a patent, a PVP allows protected plant varieties to be used in new breeding programmes without the authorisation of the holders. This encourages genetic progress by allowing access to diversity for the creation of new plant varieties.