Pablo Fernández-Miranda Frías and his team can complete up to three breeding cycles per year. They plan to expand the breeding program to include new traits.

New varieties

Paving new ways: Peppers

Our goal is to launch varieties of all nine vegetable crops on the market by 2028. This time our series takes us to Spain, Türkiye and Mexico.

KWS Max Myura is our company’s first commercial blocky pepper variety in Spain.

Just like a good pepper variety in the field, our breeding in Spain has also grown steadily over the past six years. It all began in leased greenhouses and with no buildings of our own, but a lot has happened since, and the first commercial pepper variety will hit the market in Spain this year. “We literally started from scratch,” says Pablo Fernández-Miranda Frías with a smile. “Currently our germplasm is gaining structure and our knowledge of it is developing exponentially. Increasing interaction with our customers is helping us a lot in making the right decisions.”

Pablo and his colleagues are now able to do speed breeding: Additional support comes from Wageningen with doubled haploid production (see “Doubly stable and genetically homozygous”, insideKWS 02.24) and molecular breeding, while the marker technology and digital phenotyping teams in Einbeck close the loop to increase program efficiency. The team is based in Almería, one of the two main markets for peppers in Spain alongside Murcia. Almería is the cultivation region for autumn-winter production, while Murcia is used for spring-summer production.

The current focus for Pablo’s program is on red and yellow California, also known as blocky pepper, for both the Murcia and Almería markets. The new variety, KWS Max Myura, caters for Almería. In addition to blocky peppers, the elongated Lamuyo and the sweet Dulce Italiano are important types for Spain. Soon a new breeder will join the team to focus on them and target not just Spanish markets but also Sicily. Work on new blocky pepper varieties is starting to rev up: Breeding continues to develop new germplasm to fill gaps in the breeding program, while promising varieties for the different cultivation times are progressing in the pipeline. The team is confident that sooner rather than later, they will be able to provide a complete portfolio to serve customer needs.

The team led by Remzi Doğan (Head of Breeding Türkiye) is working on three new varieties. The blocky peppers from Spain could also become interesting for this market.

Trials with new varieties are already showing an increase in yield.

New varieties for Türkiye

The team in Antalya is working on three different types: Kapia (red pointed pepper), Carliston (more slender green pointed pepper) and Sivri (sweet-hot), – see “Three varieties, two colleagues, one goal” (insideKWS 03.23). Here, too, progress is being made in leaps and bounds: A first variety for all three types is due to be launched next year. Exchange between the breeding as well as the commercial teams is a crucial aspect: Pablo’s blocky peppers, for example, could also be of interest to Türkiye in the future. Genetic material is also being shared in order to breed resistance to diseases such as powdery mildew.

In particular, the Product Management team was a great help for breeding in Antalya, which likewise started from scratch: In collaboration with Sales, market information was able to be incorporated at an earlier stage and the direction of the breeding program adjusted accordingly. The prime focus in selecting new varieties is on yield, the most important trait for farmers. The team in Antalya is already seeing a yield increase in trials with the new varieties – a promising springboard for the next steps.

“We need to identify trends and changes in the market in good time.”

Pablo Fernández-Miranda Frías

Sweet and hot pepper for Mexico

Pablo’s new blocky pepper variety has already made its way to Mexico, where his colleague Aurelio Bautista is assessing whether it could also work well there. Blocky peppers also play a major role in Mexico, alongside jalapeños (hot peppers) and snack peppers. “Mexicans prefer hot peppers to the sweet varieties,” says Aurelio. “You can almost always find them in our food.”

Blocky pepper varieties adapted to local growing conditions and meeting U.S. market requirements are mainly exported to the United States, which is why many farmers grow them. Aurelio and his team are likewise working on this type, which still needs about one to two cycles before it can be put on the market. Here, too, he has to concentrate initially on one type – but Aurelio is confident that he will soon see good results with jalapeños there as well. “Jalapeño is more challenging,” he explains. “The type is grown in various regions of Mexico, all of which are very different – which makes finding a variety that is well-adapted to all these conditions no easy task.”

Hot jalapeños play a major role in Mexican dishes.

Aurelio Bautista is convinced that a proprietary jalapeño variety will soon be on the market. He also has blocky peppers in his sights – for export to the U.S.

When Aurelio joined KWS in 2022 and began pepper breeding in Mexico, many of the trials were conducted at farmers, as the company did not yet have its own station. “That was a huge help,” he says. “First for me, since I came from cucumber breeding and, second, for us as a team, as it allowed us to see directly what product profile the farmers need.”

Pablo concurs with his colleague: “We need to identify trends and changes in the market in good time and offer solutions to challenges. That’s why we’ve now hired a pre-breeder to ensure we have the essential materials at hand early on. You have to be ready for the unexpected – and the key to that is staying close to the market and having an entrepreneurial mindset.” |

This article is from insideKWS, the employee magazine of KWS. If you are an employee of our company, you have access to all other articles and previous issues. |

Dieser Artikel stammt aus der KWSintern, dem Mitarbeitermagazin der KWS. Wenn Sie Mitarbeiterin oder Mitarbeiter unseres Unternehmens sind, haben Sie Zugriff auf alle weiteren Artikel und auf frühere Ausgaben. |