FRUIT BREEDING FOR THE SOUTH OF VIETNAM

Fruit breeding program at Southern Horticultural Research Institute (SOFRI) has been conducted and strongly developed from 2001 on some main fruit trees such as Pineapple, Orange, Pummelo, Mango, Dragon fruit, and Longan. By selection of elite individuals one variety of seedless sweet orange, one individual of Da Xanh pummelo variety, two individuals of Long Co Co pummelo variety, four individuals of Queen Pineapple, one individual of Hoa Loc mango, and one individual of Cat Chu mango variety have been selected. Application of gamma rays to induce mutation has been conducted on King mandarin and Hoa Loc mango and Longan. As a result one variety of seedless king mandarin LD6, and one variety of few seeds Duong La Cam pummelo LD4 have been released in December, 2010. Traditional hybridization has been conducted on Dragon fruit, Mango, Longan, Citrus, Pineapple, ect. So far, two varieties of Dragon fruit: LD1 and LD5 dragon fruit with red and pink violet flesh have been released in December, 2005 and December 2010, respectively. In the near future, some new varieties of Pineapple, Mango, Longan and Dragon fruit will be released.