Who are we ?

A well known breeder and variety manager

Pioneer in the selection of apple varieties tolerant to pests and diseases

NOVADI is specialised in the creation and the management of apple varieties resistant to pests and diseases, particularly scab, in France and worldwide.

For more than 25 years, NOVADI and INRAE have been jointly conducting the breeding program, based on the selection of apple varieties naturally resistant to pests. NOVADI is the exclusive worldwide manager of the apple varieties created in this breeding program. NOVADI thus organises the development, commercialization and implementation of a marketing strategy adapted to each new variety.

NOVADI gathers 13 French nurserymen who produce apple tree material for professional arboriculture.

Most of the nurserymen are also members of CEP INNOVATION, another company whose activities of edition and creation of varieties and rootstocks concern other fruit species (pear, apricot, peach, cherry, almond, Pyrus rootstocks, Malus rootstocks).

The partnership between NOVADI and INRAE

The partnership between NOVADI and INRAE has a lot advantages for both organizations and for the entire apple sector. Indeed, the main objective of this collaboration between the public and private sectors is to meet the current and future needs of apple growers while responding to environmental and societal expectations.

The program is jointly managed. INRAE is in charge of the fundamental research work, in particular on:

• Heritability of traits in terms of resistance to pests (major genes and QTLs),
• Tree architecture,
• Organoleptic quality (quality of the texture of the apple and its storage),
• Pre-breeding (accumulation of genes).

This work allows us to develop molecular markers for the genes of interest identified in order to integrate them routinely into our program and thus improve the efficiency of the selection.

NOVADI, in addition to financing and co-directing the program, takes care of the selection of plant material by carrying out the hybridization, early selection in the greenhouse and then selection in its experimental network. NOVADI then organizes the distribution to the industry worldwide thanks to marketing strategies dedicated to each new variety.