Portrait of a sweet cherry breeder: Gregorio Lopez-Ortega
18 Jan 2024
n this article, José Quero García, member of the technical-scientific committee of Cherry Times, interviewed Gregorio Lopez-Ortega, breeder at the Chilean company Hortifrut.
The event, held at the Gran Arena Monticello in San Francisco de Mostazal, Chile, brought together leading experts on key and current topics related to cherry production.
As in the previous year, the chosen format included three masterclasses, each accompanied by a forum for discussion and debate, which was highly appreciated by the attendees.
Earlier, Claudia Soler, Executive Director of the Chilean Cherry Committee, opened the day with her presentation titled “A new strategy for the Chilean cherry industry.”
Analysis of the 2024-25 Season
In her presentation, the expert analyzed the factors that influenced the 2024-25 export season and provided insights into how she plans to approach the new 2025-2026 campaign. She emphasized that, although “we prepared in advance for the expected higher volumes, carried out cold treatment, and coordinated with different actors in the supply chain, there were other factors that posed challenges last season.”
Claudia Soler
She also highlighted the strategic priorities and the collaborative work carried out at the union level with the National Agricultural Society (SNA) and Fedefruta, outlining a roadmap focused on raising standards and ensuring a superior consumer experience.
Following Claudia Soler’s presentation, Carlos Tapia, cherry production specialist and Technical Director at Avium, opened the masterclass session with his talk titled “Cherries from Chile. Are we ready for the second half of the match?”
Carlos Tapia
Pruning and Cherry Quality
During his masterclass, the co-founder of Smartcherry emphasized that well-executed pruning has a direct and highly significant impact on the final size of cherries. It is one of the most important agronomic and economic tasks, especially in a context of low profitability, as it reduces the number of fruiting centers and excessive shoots, thereby lowering internal competition for nutrients and allowing fewer fruits per plant to receive more resources, resulting in larger-sized cherries.
The other two masterclasses were delivered by Karen Sagredo, agricultural engineer and professor at the University of Chile, titled “Sustainable production potential. The science behind bud quality.” The remaining sessions were led by Javier de Pablo Camarasa, specialist in cherry production under plastic film. His session was titled “Mistakes are costly: analyzing forced production in early regions.”
“As I mentioned during the conference, the bud has a history that goes back more than one season, and we must care about that history because the future cherry is contained in small parts within the bud. So without a doubt, the bud itself holds the precious product we value so much,” said fruit grower Karen Sagredo.
Forums and Expert Dialogue
Additionally, CherryTech 2025 hosted three forums, informal dialogue spaces with top experts. The first was titled “Santina – Between tradition and varietal innovation. Time for critical analysis.” The second focused on the importance of calcium, under the title “Calcium – Technical use and silent impact on productive potential.”
The third forum focused on “Digital agriculture in cherry cultivation: progress and impact on the supply chain.”
Forum of Exhibitors 1
According to Walter Masman, participant in Forum 1, “It is an honor to be invited once again to this event, which represents a celebration for those of us dedicated to this demanding sector.”
This season brought remarkable visibility. Yet, Chile is admired worldwide because we have maintained a highly successful industry, whose production has a quality unmatched by any other country. This season impressed us with all that was discussed, and for a product of such high quality, all the topics addressed clearly call us to contribute further in that direction.”
Awards and Future Outlook
As in the 2024 edition, the award for scientific poster of the year was given to the Center for Advanced Studies in Fruit Growing (CEAF), which presented the study titled: “Response of cherry rootstocks to inoculations with *Pseudomonas syringae* pv. *syringae* during winter dormancy and its effect on vegetative growth during the season.”
For the companies attending the event, it was also a key opportunity for networking and sharing experiences. “CherryTech is an important opportunity to meet potential clients; it is a space for idea exchange and brainstorming. It truly helped me find a new idea and focus less on my company while opening up more. So I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this project,” said Sebastián Johnson, General Manager at Proyectos Industriales Johnson.
“We are very pleased with the number of participants we expected, and who eventually came. We saw that the audience appreciated the masterclasses and forums, and it gave us the networking opportunity we hoped for. We are thrilled with the 2025 edition,” said Jorge Tello, co-founder of Smartcherry and CherryTech.
At the close of this new edition, the event organizers confirmed a fourth edition for 2026.
“We are truly proud of the success of CherryTech 2025, thanks to the tremendous turnout we received, from both attendees and companies participating in this third edition, as well as the 1,600 people who gathered at the Gran Arena Monticello for this unprecedented event.
This inspires and motivates us to continue working to make this event a space where more and more people interested in understanding the challenges of the cherry industry can come together. Therefore, we are already planning the 2026 edition,” said Marie Bach, General Manager of Yentzen Group and co-founder of CherryTech.
To view a video recap of the event, we invite you to click here.
Beatriz Parra
Smartcherry
