In November, 2023, Sakata Seed Corporation started to market F1 strawberry seed varieties suitable for greenhouse cultivation.
The Japanese strawberry varieties are highly appreciated internationally due to their delicious flavour. However, they are also characterised by being soft, which causes conservation and transport problems. Additionally, the diseases that can cause difficulties during cultivation vary according to the region. Sakata Seed Corporation started planning to grow strawberries in 2016 and put this into practice in 2018. “Our aim is to obtain strawberry varieties that offer a balance between the exceptional flavour of Japanese strawberries and transportability, along with the resistance to disease that is necessary in the regions where they are grown,” sources from the company affirm.
In 2017, Sakata Seed Corporation obtained permission to sell Yotsuboshi seeds and seedlings, an F1 strawberry seed developed by the prefectures of Mie, Kagawa and Chiba, along with the Agricultural Research Centre of Kyushu Okinawa, and the company sold them mainly in Canada and the United States, obtaining information about the demand in each region.
Traditionally, many varieties of strawberries propagated from parent plants have been used all over the world. However, vegetative propagation has the following problems:
- The necessary effort to manage the parent plant and to harvest the young plants.
- The risk of disease infection from the parent plant.
- Restrictions in the transplanting season of young plants.
To solve these problems, Sakata Seed Corporation is working on developing F1 strawberry seed varieties (perennial) for plants that can be grown from seed. “We have already started the worldwide production trial,” they comment.
To speed up the movement towards marketing even more, the company has recently initiated an activity that brings together research, production and sales. “Our whole company will work towards marketing our F1 strawberry seeds business.”
