All around blackcurrants in June
June and August 2019: no blackcurrant conference, still a nice choice of events.
Tough times for all those who want to meet around blackcurrants in June this year! You certainly know that there is no blackcurrant conference. Nevertheless, we are happy to announce several events around berries in June, for all those interested in sharing information and good moments.
4th International Conference on effects of pre- and post-harvest factors on health promoting components and quality of horticultural commodities
June 16-18, 2019 Organized by INHORT SKIERNIEWICE, Poland
Objectives of the Conference
The Conference, as a joint activity of the EUFRIN “Postharvest and Fruit Quality Working Group” and the Fruit and Vegetable Storage and Processing Department, is organized by the Research Institute of Horticulture (InHort).
Major topics of the Conference sessions:
- Health promoting components of fruits, vegetables and edible ornamentals (vitamins, antioxidants, etc.)
- The health benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption (fresh and minimally processed)
- Effects of pre- and post-harvest factors (orchard management, technology of vegetable growing, climate and weather conditions, harvest date, storage technology and shelf-life conditions and duration, and the like) on quality and safety (zero residues) of fruit, vegetables and ornamentals.
The official language of the conference is English.
Conference Fee: € 150
The registration fee covers: full access to sessions, conference materials (incl. Book of Abstracts), coffee breaks, lunches, welcome reception, conference dinner, professional tour.
Conference Venue
All activities of the Conference, except the Professional Tour, will take place in Skierniewice, a small town located in central Poland with about 48,000 inhabitants (2018). It is situated almost exactly half-way between Lodz and Warsaw, the capital city of Poland. Skierniewice is surrounded by major fruit and vegetable growing regions in Poland. The main fruit growing region, and one of the biggest in Europe and in the world (Grojec), is located about 40 km south-east from Skierniewice. The most important vegetable production regions are located close to Warsaw, Lodz, Lowicz, Leczyca and Sochaczew (70 km from Skierniewice or less).
Nowadays, Skierniewice is known as the “Capital City of Polish Horticulture”. It houses the Research Institute of Horticulture, in 2011 by merging two renown research units, both with long tradition and important achievements in horticultural sciences.
Skierniewice also locates the Experimental Field of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW) and the local College with the Department of Horticultural Sciences.
For more information please visit the Conference web site, where the First and the Second Announcements are available in PDF files.
2nd Berry World Cup, 14th June 2019 in Lublin (Poland)
A successful first edition of the “Blueberry World Cup in Football” took place last year. Four teams competed in this first tournament: raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and blackcurrants in June 2018.For this year’s edition, Jens Holme Pedersen, the President of the IBA, will ensure honorary patronage. But this is not all: a few members of the IBA will be part of the team for blackcurrants in June!The idea and goals of this event are the joint promotion of a healthy and active lifestyle, and the integration of berry growers through sports. It will promote:
- daily consumption of blackcurrants and other berries
- growers as active people, informed producers of top-quality fruits and advocates of a healthy lifestyle
- the place of production – building the image of plantations as physical places where the top-quality product comes from.
Together, we can do more!
The formula
Growers of four types of fruit (blackcurrants, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries) build the teams that participate in the tournament. A sports picnic with fruit tasting is taking place in margin of the matches.
- Promotion of sports in cooperation with the municipality and with football circles.
- Next to the growers’ tournament, there will be a mini-tournament for teams composed of pupils from Lublin primary schools (U-13).
- Promotion of daily consumption of berries and exercise at the start of the summer holiday season.
- Organised cheering on the teams and comments in both Polish and English.
The tournament attracts young people and the sports community, as it will immediately follow the U-20 FIFA World Cup held in Poland (23rd May – 15th June 2019).
Communication
Of course, it is important to talk about this event. Therefore, the organizers have informed the global berry media, the regional media, with the support of the Honorary Patron Mayor of Lublin’s press services, and the Polish national media through the Polish Press Agency PAP. Anyone can also follow the event through live stream on Facebook.
Tournament participants
Four teams will participate in the Berry World Cup:
- The National Association of Blackcurrant Growers is going to enter an international team of blackcurrant producers. The Association represents the industry and promotes the benefits of blackcurrant. Poland is the world’s largest producer and the major exporter of the fruit. It accounts for 53% of global blackcurrant production.
- The Lublin region is going to enter a team of raspberry producers. 75% of national production of raspberries comes from plantations in that region, and the Lublin region is one the biggest producers of raspberries in the world. Raspberry’s share in the market is growing spectacularly. Over the past five years, the European fruit market has been growing by 1% annually, while the raspberry market has grown by 25%. The same is true virtually across the globe.
- Team of strawberry producers. Strawberries are the most important fruit out of the whole group of red berries, with a 75% share of European trade in that segment. Strawberry consumption and sales are very stable. The strawberry team will be entered by growers from Czerwinsk nad Wisla, Poland’s largest strawberry-growing region.
- Growers from the Lublin region will make up the team of Blueberry producers, just like in the first edition. Blueberries have been an export hit and are heavily promoted in Poland. The idea to organise the World Cup emerged as an initiative of blueberry growers in 2018.
Ribes Rubus Symposium
Zürich (Switzerland) will locate the XII International Rubus and Ribes Symposium from June 25 to June 28 2019: Innovative Rubus and Ribes production for high quality berries in changing environments.
#RubusRibes2019
Follow Raspberries and Blackcurrants in June in Social Media
The Symposium will start with a pre-symposium tour from Frankfurt, Germany, to Zürich (already complete!).
The 4-day-conference in Zürich will focus on the following topics:
- Genetic resources
- Breeding
- Cultivar evaluation
- Nursery production
- Protected cultivation
- Cultivation in substrate
- Plant management and training systems
- Value chains and economy
- Adaptation on abiotic stresses and climate change
- Control of pests, diseases and weeds
- Plant physiology and omics technology
- Postharvest handling
- Fruit quality and health values
Together we can contribute to the improvement of the production systems to better meet agricultural, societal and environmental challenges.
Zasso Field Day
A meeting dedicated to a subject which is of concern to many: weeding! The company Zasso works on electric weeding systems in vineyards – which may be applicable to blackcurrants.
After last year’s success, Zasso organizes a field day again this year. It takes place on 4th June 2019 and will present the next generation of digital herbicides. The multi-lingual meeting (EN, GER, FR) will focus on the use of digital herbicides in agriculture and consumer applications. A guest speaker with many years of experience in weed control in the semi-professional sector will be present.
The registration period already ended on 15th May 2019, but the IBA will do its best to keep you informed on this highly interesting topic. And who knows? Maybe there will be something to show which is already applicable for blackcurrants in June 2020 in Lviv?That was it for blackcurrants in June. But we have more for August:
Open Farm Day Latvia
We have also received an invitation from one of our members in Latvia, the Krogzeme farm for the 17th August 2019. Andris Krogzems suggests a discovery day of his farm. It will all be around organic blackcurrant growing, products and sales channels. For all those interested, there will also be a part of the day spent on sea buckthorn.
The programme
Morning: presentation of the farm, presentation of the activity for seedlings, fertilizaion systems in organic and non organic orchards, growing technologies for sea buckthorn.
Afternoon: field demonstrations (farm machines and equipment park, field demonstrations on request – weeding machines, fertilizing machines, etc., blackcurrant seedlings plantation, sea buckhtorn plantation, sea buckthorn seedlings plantation on request)
This is the first time that the IBA gets the occasion to have an insight in blackcurrant growing in Latvia. It is also the first time that we have a whole day dedicated to organic growing.
The good news: the event is free of charge!
Registration
Please contact Andris Krogzems by email until August 10th at latest and inform him about your name, company, country and the number of persons to participate.
Andris Krogzems, +371 29255443, andris@krogzeme.lv
The destination of this event is located here