Development of a yield-safe production of organic apricots in Switzerland

The supply of Swiss organic apricots is by far not sufficient to satisfy the market demand. The main production of organic apricots has so far been limited to a few farms in the Valais, which are exposed to strong fluctuations in yield due to unsufficient regulatory possibilities against the key diseases Monilia and Pseudomonas. In order to develop a profitable and economical production of organic apricots, the project is divided in the following focuses:

1. Variety testing: search for disease-tolerant varieties with good market potential for a production throughout Switzerland.
2. Diesease regulation: search for effective organic treatments against Monilia on flowers and fruits.
3. Variety breeding: improvement of breeding methods with gene mapping for Monilia tolerance and markers for marker-assisted selection (MAS).
4. Knowledge transfer: dissemination of the project findings through publications and advisory documents.

• Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) – Research, training and innovation

• Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) – Research, training and innovation

• Agroscope
• Office Cantonal d’Agriculture du Valais OCA-VS
• BioValais
• Andermatt Biocontrol
• COOP Suisse
• IFEVL
• Institut National de Recherche Agronomique INRA Avignon (France)
• Groupe de Recherche en Agriculture Biologique GRAB (France)

• Araldi Flore (Department Suisse Romande)

• Baumgartner Fabian (Department of Crop Sciences)
• Charles Raphaël (Department Suisse Romande)
• Friedli Michael (Department of Crop Sciences)
• Gallmeister Anna (Department of Crop Sciences)
• Häseli Andreas (Department of Crop Sciences)

Work package manager und Projektpartner

• Department Suisse Romande (FiBL Switzerland)
• Fruit production (Department of Crop Sciences, FiBL Switzerland)