North Carolina Association of County Agricultural Agents
2001 Annual State Meeting
Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, Asheville
June 26-28, 2001
|
|
North Carolina Association of County Agricultural Agents |
|---|
|
Contact Mark Lancaster for additional information.
The tomato-breeding program began 1976, when the state legislature
recognized that North Carolina growers dependent upon tomato crops
needed better varieties. The mission of the breeding program is simple:
develop tomato varieties that set well in cool nights, resist early
blight, produce large fruit, and have the ability to be sold
economically as "vine-ripened". In 1981,"Mountain Pride" was released,
the first of the mountain series. "Mountain Pride" was quickly adopted
by vine-ripe growers throughout the eastern portion of the United
States. Each year, the breeding program produces three generations of
fruit in the greenhouse to determine and reproduce desirable genetic
traits and one or two generations in the field. Test plots are located
on the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research Station in Fletcher, in
grower fields throughout western North Carolina, in the Piedmont, at
Clinton Research Station in the coastal plain and in the coastal area of
South Carolina. In this way growers have a high level of access to the
breeding program. The program has been particularly successful in
helping growers satisfy the public's demand for vine-ripened tomatoes,
which typically have better flavor but are more difficult to ship and
handle than their mature green counterparts. Again and again, varieties
released from this program have marked significant improvements over
their predecessors and have helped the state's farmers to remain
competitive nationally. In North Carolina, tomato production is big
business - bringing in roughly $25-30 million each year. At least a
half of this production is in western North Carolina. More than 80% of
that income is derived from varieties released through this program.
Tomatoes require a high level of color and size sorting to meet the cosmetic demands of today's markets. Many of today's chain stores require specific services from their supplier such as custom packaging, custom branding, and UPC and PLU labeling. Custom Pac offers these services and provides "account specific" packing by one of the most advanced computer processes available in produce automation.