EUBerry—The sustainable improvement...

The main objective of the EUBerry project is to provide the necessary knowledge and tools to facilitate development of high
quality, consumer-desirable fresh berry fruits of high nutritional quality optimal for human health at a competitive cost. The
further objective is the development and validation of a set of tools to improve competitiveness of European berry production
and consumer accessibility to berry fruits. The EUBerry platform will be developed and validated by using strawberry and
raspberry and blueberry as model crop species. Additionally, specific critical points related to improvement of berry fruit
quality and reduction of production costs will be considered also for currants and blackberries.
This project will apply the most recent technical advances in: a) Identifying germplasm of the main berry fruit genera
appropriate for sustainable production throughout the EU, with respect to fruit quality and environmental adaptation and
expanding use of modern breeding strategies to accelerate the release of new berry fruit cultivars into the future; b) Ensuring
and expanding high-quality production systems to improve availability of high-quality fresh berries for consumers by
focusing on the modern cultivation techniques for berry season extension, on adaptation to different cultivation conditions
and systems, as well as to climate change, and on reducing the impact on environment in different European regions; c)
Developing and applying validated methods to control and maintain fruit nutritional quality, improving shelf-life of fresh berries
and increasing their availability to consumers; d) Developing economic studies to verify the impacts of the new technologies
in increasing berry economic viability, farmer and consumer attractiveness; e) Disseminate and communicate the results
to research scientists, academia, technical services, growers, market organizations, consumers, food industries, health
authorities and regulatory and legislative authorities.