Focus of Working

The EUFRIN Working Group (WG) for Apricot and Peach was established in 2014 to bring together scientists specializing in peach and apricot research and production, primarily from the EU but also from non-EU countries.

Its primary objectives and activities include:

• Harmonized Cultivar Evaluation: The group operates a network of 12 testing sites (including Italy, Spain, France, Greece, and Romania) to evaluate new peach and nectarine cultivars under diverse climatic conditions.
• Standardized Protocols: The group has developed a list of 48 descriptors to evaluate cultivar performance (e.g., blooming and harvest phenology, productivity, fruit quality, and stress tolerance), ensuring that data is comparable across different countries.
• Innovation and Sustainability: During meetings, the group discusses breeding innovations to meet the demand for more sustainable crops resilient to climate change. Climatic and experimental data are used to provide cultivar-specific tree phenology responses and to provide reliable advice for enhancing the resilience of production under changing climatic conditions.

Benefits will concern breeders and stakeholders aiming to recognize best cultivar performance under diverse climatic conditions. The ongoing dialogue between researchers and stakeholders deliver valuable feedback to scientists on the practical problems encountered by EU producers. Currently the EUFRIN peach and apricot working group includes researchers from 33 European Research and Demonstration Institutes 

Activities

2024
Piedmont, Italy, June 20-21, hosted by Agrion – Common meeting with breeders/licence holders

2022
Naoussa, Greece, May 31, hosted by ELGO-DIMITRA – Held in conjunction with the X International Peach Symposium.

2020
2 virtual meetings, July 16 and October 26

2018
Balandran, France, June 4-5, hosted by Ctifl

2016
Meeting:

• Lleida (Spain) – July 2016
• International workshops
  • PPV (Sharka Disease) in peach: Developing a proposal to fight the virus spread - Milan: Wednesday, April 20, 2016 & Cesena: Friday, April 22, 2016

2014
Forlì, Italy, August 8^th, hosted by CREA