FRUIT EXPERTS FROM START TO FINISH
Hybridizer for stone fruit varieties
STAR GROUP has joined forces with stone fruit marketers Fruits & Cie and Fruits Union to continue the hybridisation activities of Mr Monteux-Caillet, one of STAR FRUITS’ historic partner breeders.
Today AC FRUIT is a breeding programme for peaches, nectarines and apricots,, offering varieties with outstanding taste and agronomic performance.
French producer of in vitro rootstocks
Eurostème is a laboratory that has specialised for over 20 years in the production of fruit tree rootstocks under in vitro culture. The business is now diversifying to include the production of in vitro kiwifruit, for example. This Saint-Etienne-based company, 50% owned and co-managed with Lafond Nurseries, has been part of STAR GROUP since 2012.
Nurserymen for fruit plants and rootstocks
Everything starts with the nursery trade, i.e. the production of trees in the form of dormant eyes, scions, table grafts or Knipp depending on the stage of development of the desired tree.
Our 4 member nurseries are all multipliers of fruit varieties. STAR GROUP’s STAR PMP subsidiary is also a propagator, with the added bonus of also being a rootstock producer.
Fruit variety publisher
The variety editor works with variety creators/breeders throughout the world. Its role is to research, introduce, evaluate, then protect, develop and distribute innovative fruit varieties that meet the expectations of consumers and therefore of arboriculturists.
To carry out its variety evaluation work, STAR FRUITS works closely with its member nurseries and European experimentation stations.
STAR FRUITS has developed expertise and a network of legal partners in the territories for which it is responsible for varieties, to protect and defend the property rights associated with the varieties: from registering PVCs and trademarks to combating counterfeiting and illegal propagation.
Fruit brand industry coordinator
As the company responsible for variety development, STAR FRUITS has developed particular expertise in the construction and management of initiatives organised around the collective promotion of fruit brands at different geographical levels.
The PINK LADY® Europe association, which is responsible for the collective and concerted promotion of the PINK LADY® Europe, en charge de la promotion collective et concertée de la marque PINK LADY® brand in Europe, is the oldest and most successful example of an organised approach, bringing together nursery growers, producers and marketers. The 13 marketers and more than 3,000 European growers have joined forces with nurserymen to work together to create and maintain value for apples. The value created collectively on the market is then distributed to all the links in the chain, right up to the breeder, via the marketers, growers and nurserymen.
This innovative organisational model has inspired other initiatives led by STAR FRUITS for other brands of apples: JOYA®, blood-fleshed nectarines and peaches NECTAVIGNE® and PECHEVIGNE® and plums: METIS®.
Export sales office for fruit plants and rootstocks
STAR EXPORT sells some of the plant material produced by member nurseries on export markets (Europe, North Africa, Central Asia).