SLU's decision to withdraw support for apple processing threatens future Swedish apple varieties

For 85 years, Sweden has refined apples to produce varieties that are good, healthy and suit the climate we have in the country. One of the successes is 'Aroma', which is the second most cultivated apple in the country, as popular with professional growers as with consumers and hobby growers.

But now it may be the end of new Swedish apple varieties. SLU's management has suddenly and without warning decided to withdraw all support for plant breeding in apples that began in 1941 in Balsgård. As late as 2023, it was moved to Alnarp, where plant material has now been brought from the former experimental fields in Balsgård. Here is also the National Gene Bank's collection of local varieties from all over Sweden, a cultural and historical heritage and genetic resources.

Swedish apples are not just tradition – they are preparedness, climate adaptation, cultural heritage and food policy at the same time.

To then stop working on developing new varieties shows that one hand of the state does not know what the other is doing

The Swedish Agency for Agriculture has set as a goal in the food strategy that 50 percent of the apples we eat should be Swedish by 2035, that is, a doubling. This will require new cultivations to be started in new areas with new varieties that are adapted to Swedish cultivation and that trade and consumers want to buy. To then stop working on developing new varieties shows that one hand of the state does not know what the other is doing.

Swedish apples are an important part of our preparedness for future crises. Here we have a good source of many benefits in the diet, easy to grow with large harvests and not least important – suitable for storage even without access to a fridge and freezer. Apples are a very important staple in emergency times.

Apples produced in Sweden are adapted to our climate. Fruit trees that bloom too early are easily frost damaged. We need varieties that flower later and ripen earlier than those grown further south in Europe or on other continents do. New varieties can be stored until early summer. They should also have good taste, thin skin and be crispy.

Apple is part of our cultural history. We have grown apples in Sweden since the Iron Age. Of course, it was an apple core that Kristina carried in her pocket in Vilhelm Moberg's epic 'The Emigrants' to bring a part of her homeland to America. In the Swedish national regalia, Erik XIV's national apple is included as an important symbol of the country, to name a couple of examples. The apple has historically been an important source of vitamins and part of the diet unlike pears and strawberries which were a luxury.

Fruit tree canker, scab and other diseases are much more common on older varieties

Why don't white astrakan, transparente blanche, signe tillisch and other old historical varieties work? Yes, unfortunately many older varieties are affected by disease. The most cultivated variety ingrid marie easily gets fruit tree canker. In particular, fruit tree canker, scab and other diseases are much more common on older varieties, which means that professional growers cannot grow these for economic reasons. Poor quality apples simply cannot be sold.

The requirements are particularly high for organic growers who need access to healthy apples adapted to a Swedish climate. For commercial cultivation, it is particularly important that there is ongoing development of new varieties that meet new challenges, not least resistance to diseases, climate change and the demands of trade. Processing into cider and other products has had an explosive development with farm sales. New plantations are established in Central Sweden. The apple kingdom in Skåne and Grännabygden has been joined by Sörmland apples.

You can't rely on the old varieties to work in the future! Nor new variants from Belgium or the Czech Republic.

The apple plant breeding that is currently carried out at the Swedish University of Agriculture in Alnarp uses modern methods. Genetic analyzes link traits such as hardiness, storage capacity and disease resistance directly to the apple's genetic mass – including taste and texture.

If SLU's management sticks to its decision to withdraw all funding from January 2027, in order to invest instead in "innovative" projects around vegetables, fruit and berries in northern Sweden, competence from the long-term apple processing will disappear - and so will the management of the valuable plant material in Alnarp. If you have to start from scratch in the future, 15–20 years will not be enough before you can develop a new variety.

Just because the processing is based in Skåne, it does not mean that only apples are produced for the southern part of the country. On the contrary, the focus is on varieties that work for cultivation, both professionally and for recreational cultivation in as large parts of the country as possible. The variety 'Folke' shows that you can breed for the whole country - not just Scania. Abandoning this to invest in short projects in the north is a decision that testifies that the management of an agricultural university with world-leading research does not understand what plant breeding requires. Or that new varieties have no value to a university that counts doctoral hats.

Just because the breeding is based in Skåne does not mean that only varieties are produced for the southern part of the country

SLU's management must rethink - now. Apple breeding needs secure funding, continuity of expertise and a functioning network of test sites to develop varieties for the whole of Sweden. It is not a question of Scania versus the north, or of tradition versus innovation. It's a question of whether we want to keep the capability – or whether we want to pay the price to rebuild it twenty years from now.

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