EUFRUIT Project Outline

The project consists of 5 Work Packages (WPs)

 

WP1: Project coordination and sustain

Will secure the overall coordination of EUFRUIT network through providing leadership, developing a Knowledge Platform, secure an overview of communication activities to stakeholders, and report on how the network delivers value for the various stakeholders in the EU fruit sector. Focus will also be on sustaining the EUFRUIT network beyond the project timeline.

 

WP2: Performance of new fruit varieties

Focus on:

  • Exchanging the latest information on the availability of new fruit varieties  resistant to main diseases and pests in organic and nonorganic production;
  • Developing superior cultivars, increasing profitability for growers;
  • Increasing selection of quality fruit over longer season for both fresh and processing market;
  • Increasing consumer satisfaction by delivering optimal maturity fruit with superior taste and keeping quality attributes;
  • Reducing chemical use and loading on food and in the environment;
  • Increasing sustainability of and trustworthiness in food production systems.

 

WP3: Reduction in pesticide residues

Focus on:

  • Minimal input and or organic production systems;
  • Alternative technologies, prediction and decision support systems;
  • Spray technologies, to deliver and increasing productivity and profitability for growers, reduce fruit loss based on quality issues through the food chain and increasing consumer satisfaction through trustworthiness in food production systems.

 

WP4: Fruit quality; improvement of fruit handling/storage

Focus on:

  • Exchanging the latest information on pre-harvest and post-harvest aspects of fruit quality;
  • Methods and techniques used to determine fruit quality;
  • Comparisons between destructive and non-destructive methods of quality determination;
  • Fruit quality indices;
  • Legal regulations in the fruit quality determination;
  • Prediction of optimum harvest date;
  • The influence of harvest date and storage conditions on fruit quality and storability;
  • Development of innovative storage technologies and their impact on fruit quality;
  • Health promoting components in fruit;

ยท    Identification, prediction and control of storage diseases and disorders.

 

WP5: Secure sustainable fruit production

Focus on:

  • Maintaining yield and quality of fruit production under combined water and heat stresses:
  • Delivering thinning strategies to ensure a cost effecting production and secure fruit of a consistent and optimal quality;
  • Knowledge and technologies that underpin the sustainable production of a range of different fresh fruit species to add direct value for producers.

 

 

PERT chart of the EUFRUIT work plan. Blue arrows: Management; Green arrows: Knowledge; Black arrows: Dissemination/knowledge