Breeding

Having reviewed their current breeding program, CAROSEM has decided to expand their development of carrot varieties that will be more suitable for world markets. This research project aims to meet the changing agronomic and market requirements arising from an agricultural sector facing climate change – especially in the more southerly latitudes i.e. the Mediterranean basin or in similar climatic conditions.

CAROSEM’s breeding station in Italy will allow the use, evaluation and selection of material with a new genetic background to improve yield and quality. Our breeder intends to develop varieties that will consistently perform well in variable climatic conditions, such as high temperature, drought and salt concentration. This breeding approach will enlarge the genetic basis of our plant populations and allow better adaptability of its components to climate modifications (resilience). This is a very important breeding goal because these new “plastic” populations will be the first source of parental lines of future commercial hybrids.

The pilot project will include various experienced professionals in the breeding chain, ensuring continuous evaluation of material throughout the development of new varieties.

The selection process will not focus solely on a specific agronomic quality, but will be evaluated on all important traits such as: disease resistance, flavour and nutritive value (organoleptic properties), dry matter, etc. All breeding material selected will be analyzed for chemical composition through several routine and molecular techniques in a laboratory.

CAROSEM intends to develop new parental lines with tissue culture technique that will allow production of Double Haploid (DH) lines. Plants belonging to these DH lines are characterized by a strong uniformity thus allowing us to create/produce hybrids with an improved uniformity.
This breeding vision and laboratory approach will be applied to existing and new carrot lines selected in northern latitude European Countries, as this commercial market remains the core business of our Company.