Evolution of the apricot industry in Italy and the national program “List of recommended fruit cultivars”

Over recent decades many new fruit-tree cultivars have become available, including apricot, obtained by breeding programs conducted both in Italy and abroad. However, the experience acquired so far on apricot has shown that introduction of novel cultivars, especially of foreign origin, may often give disappointing results, with unpredictable variability depending on the environment. In 1992 a National Program was launched to draw up a list of “Recommended fruit varieties” for fruit-tree growers. As part of this program, agreements were made with a number of Institutions (Operating Units) located in different areas of Italy. The new cultivars bred in Italy and in other countries were incorporated in the collections of the various Operating Units for analysis of vegetative, pomological, horticultural and technological characteristics, according to common descriptor. The traits thereby determined were used for classification of the cultivars into four lists: A, B, C, Fail. Behaviour of apricot cultivars and their evaluation in the different Italian geographic areas is shown.