SOURCE: Eastern Daily Press
A Norwich-based company developing gene-edited bananas has acquired a banana plant propagation business which operates across Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.
Tropic, headquartered at Norwich Research Park, is using gene-editing and breeding technologies to develop Cavendish bananas with improved traits, such as disease resistance, reduced browning, extended shelf-life and higher yields.
It has now acquired Rahan Meristem, a leading banana plant propagation company with production facilities in Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Israel and the Philippines.
The acquisition provides Tropic with large-scale plant production and distribution capacity across the world’s major banana-producing regions.
More than 20 million tonnes of bananas are exported each year, but commercial production relies almost entirely on a single variety, the Cavendish, leaving growers exposed to disease and supply chain disruption.
Gilad Gershon, Tropic’s CEO, said: “Welcoming Rahan and its team into Tropic creates a remarkable joint business with the operational scale and global reach to deliver critical banana innovations to growers worldwide.
“Together, we can help growers improve resilience and productivity while delivering better-quality fruit and reduced waste for consumers and supply chains.”