Breeding
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COT INTERNATIONAL
In our selection of varieties, we focus on eating quality. As committed hybridizers, each cross is made to produce tasty fruit that consumers will love.
Our No. 1 objective: eating quality
Apricots
In our apricot breeding program, we apply a wide range of selection criteria to meet both growers’ and consumers’ expectations.
Self-fertility, a key trait, allows successful pollination without relying on other varieties.
Eating quality is a major focus: we seek a well-balanced sugar/acid ratio, a melting and juicy texture, and very pronounced aromas.
Regarding ripening periods, our objective is to extend the varietal calendar from early May to mid-August.
Agronomic traits such as productivity, yield regularity, and tree management are carefully evaluated to improve profitability and facilitate growers’ work.
Geographical and climatic adaptability is also a priority, ensuring the robustness of varieties across a wide range of environments. Likewise, resistance of the fruit to skin blemishes, browning, cracking, and various types of handling damage ensures optimal valorisation of first-grade fruit.
Disease resistance and tolerance strengthen crop sustainability by limiting the use of plant protection products and ensuring consistent and high yields every year.
Fruit firmness is sought to withstand handling while maintaining a pleasant eating texture. Post-harvest storage capacity is essential for our customers in the Southern Hemisphere.
The search for an optimal fruit size is of great importance. We aim to select varieties with strong size and yield potential in order to limit thinning operations, reduce production costs, and achieve maximum Class 2A tonnage.
We also offer varieties with a wide diversity of skin colour: bicoloured fruits (orange with an attractive red blush), red apricots, as well as white apricots.
Cherries
Our approach to cherry breeding is quite similar to that used for apricots. The main selection criteria are as follows:
The development of a complete varietal range is essential to produce high-quality fruit from the beginning to the end of the season.
Eating quality combining high sugar content, low acidity, and excellent juiciness is a key objective.
Attractive red skin colour is not only an aesthetic feature but also an indicator of optimal harvest maturity.
We also target large-sized cherries (>30 mm), meeting market requirements and offering higher returns to growers.
Tolerance to cracking and very good firmness are crucial aspects to ensure a high-quality harvest of first-grade fruit, resistant to handling and storage, crunchy and pleasant to eat.
From an agronomic standpoint, we look for trees that are easy to manage, with early bearing, regular annual production, and varieties that are easy to pollinate or even self-fertile.
Post-harvest storage capacity is essential for our customers in the Southern Hemisphere.
Plums
Our breeding program for American–Japanese plums (Prunus salicina) is based on rigorous selection criteria to ensure outstanding eating quality and optimal agronomic performance.
From a sensory standpoint, we aim for very sweet fruits with low acidity—particularly very low skin acidity—juicy flesh and rich aromatic profiles, in order to surprise consumers and increase both sales and overall plum consumption.
This type of plum offers a wide diversity of skin colours (red, orange, yellow, blue and black), combined with yellow or red flesh.
Beyond flavour, our selection criteria also include strong agronomic performance, encompassing disease resistance, productivity and environmental adaptability.
Selected plums must present good fruit size (+50 mm) as well as a more rounded shape, which is both more attractive and less sensitive to handling.
Fruit firmness is a fundamental trait to optimise post-harvest life and ensure fresh, flavourful plums over an extended period after harvest.
The selection in detail
In our experimental orchards, our hybridisation programme targets three key species: Apricot, Cherry and Plum. Each variety is carefully selected and studied according to precise criteria. Planted at a rate of two trees per variety in our experimental orchards, the best varieties are identified. Once they have been selected, they are grown on a commercial scale in a dedicated orchard to assess their real agronomic performance. Our demonstration orchard invites visitors to discover these varieties under authentic growing conditions. At the same time, the diversity of our selection can be seen in full bloom, with three trees per variety, at experimentation stations and on the premises of privileged customers.
Selection process
We monitor the entire production process, from flowering to harvesting. Meticulous recording of dates, flowering, anomalies, fruit set and thinning. Assessment of tree type, habit, vigour and factors influencing fruiting. Monitoring of ripening with dates, production and harvesting. Precise laboratory analysis of the fruit, including 1st category rate, size distribution, firmness and sugar content. Our Tasting Club provides commercial feedback, regularly sending samples to buyers for relevant advice throughout the season.
Variety distribution
After selection, the trees are propagated by nurseries approved by COT INTERNATIONAL. In collaboration with CTIFL, cloning, indexing and certification of the varieties are carried out. Experimentation, carried out in different regions and at growers' premises, refines our technical understanding of each variety. An exhaustive variety sheet summarises all the technical characteristics.
For the commercial aspect, visits to mature orchards are organised, if possible in different production areas. We take part in trade fairs such as SITEVI, MACFRUT, FRUIT LOGISTICA and FRUIT ATTRACTION to promote our varieties around the world.
Today, our varieties are planted in some thirty countries around the world and produced by hundreds of growers who have placed their trust in us.
Protection of varieties
Each selected variety is protected at Community level by the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO). This plant variety certificate (C.O.V.) gives the holder exclusive rights to produce, propagate and market the variety. Anyone wishing to propagate, plant trees and produce fruit from a C.O.V. variety must request authorisation from the variety's publisher. They must also use the variety denomination that has been assigned to the variety. This obligation continues to apply even after the Community plant variety right has expired. For countries outside the European Union, we apply to each country for a national plant variety certificate.
To date, we have protected more than 50 varieties of apricot, cherry and plum.
