By Heeduk Oh, 2022-2025 FFAR Fellow
a North Carolina State University
Blueberries are a beloved fruit, enjoyed for their pleasant flavor and health benefits. The production of blueberries has increased almost 5-fold during the last 20 years largely due to successful breeding efforts that have expanded the areas suitable for their production. My research is focused on helping breeding programs develop blueberry varieties with a firmer texture that is appealing to consumers while protecting the berries from damage during harvest and transport.
Fruit texture is one of the fruit quality traits that can change drastically during transport and storage and can have significant consequences on both consumer experience and marketability. Currently cultivated varieties (cultivars) often produce fruit with variable texture that fails to consistently meet consumer expectations. Moreover, fruit from most cultivars are insufficiently firm and susceptible to internal bruising, making it challenging for machine harvest. As a result, developing blueberries with firmer berries that do not soften quickly during storage has become a crucial goal for breeding programs.