Getting Europe’s Berries Future-Ready – Results from the BreedingValue Project

Ancona, Italy, 27 August 2025 – After four and a half years of research, the European research project BreedingValue has successfully concluded, providing new tools, data, and knowledge to ensure that strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries remain resilient, sustainable, and attractive to consumers across Europe.

In 2021, the BreedingValue consortium set out to develop new breeding strategies for resilient and high-quality berries – strawberries, blueberries and raspberries – while ensuring genetic diversity and responding to consumer quality and sensorial preferences. The goal was to shape sustainable and competitive berry production across Europe by addressing the need for new cultivation systems as well as high-quality produce due to current challenges posed by climate change and environmental preservation.

“Berries are among the crops most vulnerable to climate change,” says Bruno Mezzetti, coordinator of the BreedingValue project. “Our project gives breeders the resources to create berry varieties that are both climate-resilient and consumer-friendly, ensuring that high-quality fruit remains accessible at a sustainable cost.”

The BreedingValue consortium consisting of 20 partner organisations and 10 external collaborators involved through the Open Calls, studied an unprecedented diversity of genetic material. More than 1,500 strawberry populations and nearly 100 raspberry and blueberry populations were characterised using new advanced genotyping technology and new phenotyping tools to enable breeders to identify resilient traits, improve fruit quality, and accelerate the development of varieties that can withstand climate change.

Based on the activities of the BreedingValue project an innovative breeding strategy was developed. The strategy integrates genomic, metabolomic, and sensory analyses to identify genetic resources linked to plant resilience and fruit quality. These resources were evaluated for pre-breeding and commercial potential using new genotyping and phenotyping tools created within the project.

Key achievements of the project were the creation of harmonised sensory methodologies and multilingual lexicons, allowing breeders to better align berry breeding with consumer expectations. Life-Cycle Assessment studies on 26 strawberry and raspberry field trials showed that both representative cultivars and promising advanced selections can adapt well to more sustainable cultivation systems. The advanced genomic and phenotyping tools generated in the project, further boost sustainable breeding and transfer practical innovations to European breeding companies.

The findings generated within the BreedingValue project laid the basis for a groundbreaking online database dedicated to strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. The Berry Database, which can be found on the Germinate platform, is designed to support researchers, breeders, and enthusiasts alike, providing a wealth of information that is crucial for advancing berry science. About 20 pre-breeding accessions have been registered on the EURISCO platform and are publicly accessible. In addition, four new cultivars – one raspberry and three strawberry – have been registered on the CPVO system, complemented by the patenting of a seed germination method.

On the basis of the project’s results, the BreedingValue consortium calls on the European Union to ensure the ongoing prioritisation of research on berry crops, supporting genetic resource preservation and advanced breeding strategies. Without sustained investment, Europe risks losing control of its berry production chain and becoming increasingly dependent on non-EU companies.

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