Gonzalo Espinoza wakes up when the roosters crow. He says goodbye to Susi, his wife, turns on the engine of his white van, leaves the city of Curico and goes to his fields in the sector Glassy Water, where he has 23 hectares of cherry crops and 14 hectares of kiwis. Twelve of those hectares are planted with the Hayward variety. The other two hectares have 70 plants of Cristal, a variety that Espinoza discovered, reproduced and registered in the SAG; Chile’s first kiwi variety.
When Espinoza finished middle school in Curico, he traveled to Santiago to study Industrial Mechanics, a career he did not finish. He felt his calling was agriculture and returned to the area.
By that time, the kiwi was beginning to gain strength in Chile and the farmer decided to plant this fruit. In 1983 he imported Hayward kiwi plants from New Zealand and planted them in Aguas Cristalinas.
He said he had a small plantation, but that business was good because, back then, prices were high.
One day, as he was walking his fields, Espinoza found a kiwi plant that was completely different from the other plants. He could tell at once that it wasn’t of the Hayward variety.
The plant’s trunk looked like a male plant, the leaf stalks had a reddish hue, while the ones of the Hayward variety are greener.
The fruit was also different, it was heavier and its green color was creamier than the one he had cultivated for over twenty years.
There was no explanation as to how this variety had appeared, as all his plants had been propagated from cuttings, were grafted and couldn’t be pollinated.
So he attributed it to a mutation and devoted himself to taking care of this mother plant.
“I did not think about uprooting it, as I saw in it some new possibilities. It seemed interesting enough to take care of it. Its shape and taste were very attractive,” he says. Additionally, since it’s fruit is heavier, it produces twice as much as other varieties and its flavor is sweet and aromatic.
So he decided to replicate it. To do this, he uprooted the plants around it and pooled the material to create seventy offsprings, which are already productive.
He did all this work by himself and in secret. The only ones who knew what he was doing were his wife and his six children.
A new variety for Chile
In 2015, Lynda Hawef, a producer of kiwis from New Zealand arrived in Curico. Espinoza received her at his field office which overlooks the valley where he grows cherries.
After nearly two hours of exchanging ideas, Lynda got up from her chair and walked to the back of the office. There, she found the harvest of the new Cristal kiwi variety packed in black boxes. She was so surprised by it that she asked Gonzalo if she could take a picture with the kiwi and insisted that he register it in Chile as a new variety to protect it.
Up until that moment, the farmer said, he had never thought about registering the fruit. However, after having spoken with Lynda, he decided to do so. Next day he went to the SAG in Curico to inquire about the process. With that information he began filling out the documents he would then present at the SAG headquarters in Santiago.
The registration process at the SAG began in 2015. In turn, the state agency sent the information he gave them describing the plant’s history, its phenology, and fruit to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) in Geneva. There he named the new variety as Cristal. He delivered the document on December 22, 2015 and the SAG approved Cristal and registered it as a protected Chilean variety in 2016. That means that no farmer can duplicate it without authorization in the next four years.
If, after four years, he wants to extend its protection, the SAG will have to make the process before the UPOV, which, if accepted, would extend its protection for 18 years.
The long road ahead
Even though the variety is already protected, there still is a lot of work to be done, Espinoza said.
The first challenge is reproducing the plant so it can be marketed. To do so, Espinoza has been talking with a nursery to see about the most efficient method of multiplying the plants. They would do it in vitro, i.e. the nursery would multiply the kiwi in a gel base solution, which would allow them to clone the plant and get up to a thousand new plants.
Another issue is the plant’s health. Kiwis suffer from bacterial blight. Therefore, before marketing this variety, Espinoza has to perform tests to see if this variety is resistant to the disease. If it is, Espinoza hopes to have 10 hectares of the protected variety in 2018.
Marketing still isn’t a problem, as his production is still small. However, since he expects his production will increase, the farmer is already sending tastings to various countries. In fact, Espinoza said the fruit had had a very positive reception in Brazil and Korea, among other countries.
His goal is to make shipments to Europe, the US, and, why not, New Zealand in the future.
Apart from making exports, Espinoza says that one of his objectives to change the producers’ reality with this new variety. It recent years, kiwi has been losing value, going from US $3 per kilo in the 80s to 30 to 50 cents these days, making kiwi cultivation an unattractive business.
“I want this kiwi to be profitable, so that farmers set prices,” said Espinoza. (Translated from: El Mercurio)
471656 896030You created various great points there. I did a search on the subject and found a lot of people will have exactly the same opinion along with your blog. 932689
754578 267113wonderful issues altogether, you merely gained a new reader. What could you recommend about your post that you created some days within the past? Any positive? 842469
It seems to be like this plug-in is about to be labeled a “WordPress Mandatory” plug-in. It’s a direct advertising and marketing bible about writing sales copy written within the thirties. It looks on the psychology behind direct response advertising which is still valid right this moment, even if most of the examples are somewhat outdated. Even though initially it seems to be a bit slow, but eventually it might probably become one in every of the simplest strategies to generate high quality site visitors. When you’ve got a problem or concern with the SEOPressor plug-in, you can contact the product creator, Daniel Tan, directly. You only must enter your Clickbank ID once, and you’re all set. In case you’re unaware, CPA represents a flat fee payment per “action” – in this case, a profitable initial sale – somewhat than a percent of total order like in the revenue share (RevShare) model. As a way to get access to CPA sweepstakes affords you usually need to apply to a CPA affiliate community or efficiency marketing community. Have you ever heard about Solo Ad advertising? You won’t have any bother getting replies if you happen to publish a question about SEOPressor on any effectively trafficked internet marketing discussion board.
Hi there Dear, are you in fact visiting this web site
on a regular basis, if so after that you will definitely obtain good experience.
Everything is very open with a clear explanation of the issues.
It was truly informative. Your website is useful.
Thanks for sharing!
Aw, this was an extremely nice post. Spending some time and actual effort to make
a really good article… but what can I say… I put things off a whole lot and
don’t manage to get nearly anything done.
An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a colleague who had been doing a little homework on this.
And he in fact ordered me dinner simply because I found
it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this….
Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending time to
discuss this matter here on your web site.
Today, I went to the beach with my kids. I found a sea shell
and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her
ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.
She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is totally off topic but I had to tell someone!
Wow! At last I got a webpage from where I know how to genuinely
obtain valuable information concerning my study and knowledge.
I absolutely love your blog and find many of your post’s to be exactly what I’m looking for.
Does one offer guest writers to write content for you personally?
I wouldn’t mind composing a post or elaborating on a number of the subjects you write about here.
Again, awesome website!
I am truly grateful to the owner of this website who has shared this fantastic
article at at this place.
hello!,I like your writing very a lot! proportion we communicate extra approximately your article on AOL?
I require a specialist in this area to resolve my problem.
Maybe that’s you! Having a look ahead to look you.
thank a lot for your website it assists a whole lot. fluctin rezeptfrei und diskret in der Schweiz bestellen
916581 809378Dude.. My group is not considerably into looking at, but somehow I acquired to read several articles on your blog. Its great how intriguing it is for me to go to you fairly often. 670277