The Meda® series cherry varieties are owned by International Varieties Unlimited (IVU), a company established in 2010 from a joint venture between an American cherry breeding company, the Proprietary Fruit Varieties (CA USA) of the late Marvin Nies, one of the largest cherry breeders, and a group of Chilean cherry nurserymen and exporters.
"The intent of this agreement," Alejandro Navarro, president of IVU, tells Cherry Times®, "was to select, develop and market new cherry varieties of high quality (high size, hardness and sweetness) and with good post-harvest performance (processing, storage, shelf life). After a selective process lasting more than 10 years and conducted on a variety potential of 80 Californian cherry genotypes, IVU licensed, patented and marketed six new varieties under the Meda® trademark: Meda Rex® IVU-115*, Meda Fox® IVU-548*, Meda Tiger® IVU-524*, Meda Bull® IVU-104*, Meda Wolf® IVU-105* and Meda Taurus® IVU-533*."
The cultivation of the varieties of the Meda Cherry® line internationally is managed and controlled by IVU through cultivation contracts with minimum planting rights. The varieties of Grupo Meda have been authorised by eight Chilean exporters who have accepted a minimum planting right of 600 hectares in total: Garces Fruit, Copefrut, Frusan, Cerasus, Ranco Cherry, Childresh, LQ Fruits and Polar Fruit. In addition, IVU has agreements with McDougall & Son (250 ha) in the US, Manuel Raventós (100 ha) in Spain and a contract is in the process of being closed in South Africa (100 ha) and Italy.
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