Embrapa launches pineapple varieties resistant to fusarium wilt.

An image captured in 2023 in Frutal (MG) impressed researchers and pineapple producers. Next to a plantation practically decimated by fusarium wilt, an area thrived with intact fruits, showing no sign of the disease. There, the BRS Sol Bahia and BRS Diamante varieties, developed by Embrapa and now reaching pineapple growers throughout the country, were present. In addition to resistance to the main pineapple disease, the new cultivars exhibit high yield potential, firmer and more resistant fruits, and excellent flavor.

caused by fungus Fusarium guttiformeFusarium wilt is responsible for significant losses in national production, even rendering entire crops unviable. The disease compromises plant development, prevents the use of seedlings from diseased plants in new plantings, and makes it impossible to consume affected fruits. The genetic resistance of new materials, therefore, represents a valuable advantage for the producer, reducing costs with chemical control and increasing the sustainability of the crop.

Launch in Minas Gerais

Embrapa's two new pineapple varieties will be launched on November 12th, at a field day at the Boa Vista Agricultural Farm, owned by partner producer Júlio Cesar Leonel, in the municipality of Frutal (MG). The event is organized jointly with the Minas Gerais Agricultural Research Company (Epamig) and the Minas Gerais State Rural Technical Assistance and Extension Company (Emater-MG). Institutions that participated in the validation of the materials, in partnership with the Frutal City Hall, include: the Frutal City Council, the Aparecida de Minas Rural Producers Cooperative (Coopercisco), the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae), the Cooperative Credit System (Sicredi), and the Credit Cooperative System (Sicoob).

The fact that the fruits are produced without fungicide treatment provides greater food safety for the consumer. The producer also benefits by saving on these inputs and, mainly, by avoiding losses caused by fusarium wilt, which affects an average of 20% of the plants, but can lead to the total loss of the production area.

In addition to resistance to this disease—while the main pineapple varieties planted in Brazil (Pérola, Smooth Cayenne or Havaiano, and Turiaçu) are susceptible—the new varieties have several other advantages. They are adapted to the main pineapple-producing regions of the country. They produce fruits with high sugar content and medium acidity, which gives them an excellent flavor. They have few thorns on their leaves, facilitating cultivation practices. Their fruits showed greater firmness and resistance during transport and a longer shelf life. 

“Our materials possess a set of characteristics that make them superior products, the main one being resistance to fusarium wilt. And it is total resistance, different from tolerance,” emphasizes Davi Junghans, a researcher at Embrapa Cassava and Fruit Crops (BA) and leader of the pineapple genetic improvement program. He explains that, in the case of a foliar disease, such as banana Sigatoka, production is reduced, but the producer can still harvest something. However, in the case of pineapple fusarium wilt, the fruit completely loses its market value.

“Fusarium wilt has the ability to wipe out an entire plantation! Our partner Júlio Leonel almost suffered the total loss of his Pérola crop in 2023. And these new varieties, which focus on the Pérola market, address the main demand for the sustainability of Brazilian pineapple farming,” says the scientist.

He also highlights the higher productivity of the materials, which is around 56 tons per hectare, well above the average pineapple productivity in Brazil, of approximately 26 tons per hectare (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics – IBGE, 2024). “This is precisely because the Pérola variety has significant losses due to fusarium wilt. The trend, then, is that the new materials will be much more productive,” Junghans emphasizes.

Amidst the fusarium wilt outbreak, only the pineapples from Embrapa thrived.

Experiments in Frutal began in 2018 with the planting of five genotypes, three from Embrapa and the Pérola and Smooth Cayenne cultivars as controls. The third planting, harvested in 2023, involved 900 plants and was a success, in contrast to the commercial production of Pérola: 95% of the 300 plants in the conventional crop were attacked by fusarium wilt at the time.

“It was a disaster for the pineapple plantations, while none of the plants in the Embrapa experiment had any problems with the disease,” recalls the vice-president of the Aparecida de Minas Rural Producers Cooperative (Coopercisco), Júlio Cesar Leonel. “Today, I have very little of the Pérola variety left. I usually plant 300 plants a year, but since I suffered that enormous loss, I was only able to plant 90. I have another 90 of the Havaiano variety, and I increased the number with the Embrapa varieties to 5 plants,” says the farmer.

Research

The two pineapples are called "brothers," meaning they share the same genealogy. They are cultivars for fresh consumption, developed by Embrapa's genetic improvement program, from the crossbreeding of an Amazonian variety (FRF 632, collected by Embrapa and maintained in the Active Pineapple Germplasm Bank in Cruz das Almas, Bahia) with the Gold or MD-2 cultivar. Initial selection was carried out in 2012 (sexual cycle), and confirmation of attributes was done in harvests carried out between 2014 and 2018 (clonal cycles).

"Pineapple, like bananas and cassava, is a vegetatively propagated crop. Once the superior material has been selected, it can be cloned, meaning that the multiplied plants will all be identical to each other," explains Junghans.

To create a new pineapple cultivar through hybridization, two varieties are crossed, with at least one being resistant to fusarium wilt. From the seeds obtained, genotypes are generated that undergo several selection stages. The first is resistance to fusarium wilt.

Resistant genotypes are evaluated in the field for plant characteristics (such as vigor and seedling production) and fruit characteristics (weight, sugar content, acidity, among others). The best genotypes selected at Embrapa after three clonal cycles are evaluated in the main pineapple-producing regions.

Four of them were registered in 2022, including BRS Sol Bahia and BRS Diamante. Agronomic validations were carried out in commercial areas of partners and educational and research institutions in the states of Bahia, Pará, Minas Gerais, Paraíba, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso, and Ceará. After the launch in Frutal, promotional activities are planned in Itaberaba (BA), in December 2025, and São Francisco do Itabapoana (RJ), in the second half of 2026.

Physical and chemical characteristics of materials

Both cultivars produce fruits of similar size to those of Pérola — the average weight of BRS Sol Bahia is 1,37 kg, and of BRS Diamante, 1,67 kg —, creamy pulp, high sugar content and medium acidity, in addition to few thorns. “This is a great advantage for crop management, as it doesn't hurt the worker. In the case of Pérola, people prune the plants to be able to enter the plantation, removing leaf area, which also harms the plant,” says Epamig researcher Daniel Angelucci, who worked on the evaluation of the varieties, alongside Embrapa researcher Tullio Pádua.

The fruits of both varieties should be harvested with colored skin. "Pineapple is a non-climacteric fruit, which means it doesn't ripen significantly after being harvested. There are four harvest stages: greenish, spotted, colored, and yellow. The Pérola variety must be harvested in the greenish stage, with a green peel. If the producer harvests a yellow Pérola, it will already be overripe and have a shorter shelf life. The new Embrapa cultivars, however, cannot be harvested greenish. Ideally, the fruits should be harvested at the colored stage, with the peel 50% to 75% yellow," explains Junghans.

According to Angelucci, one of the biggest challenges regarding these materials is making the market understand the difference. “Consumers often associate yellow with overripe pineapple. In reality, these varieties need to be harvested while still colored; otherwise, the fruit becomes acidic. Therefore, we need to intensify our efforts to promote these varieties, which represent a significant improvement. Their resistance is exceptional. In addition to saving significant resources in cultivation by reducing fungicide spraying,” praises the Epamig professional.

In the case of BRS Sol Bahia, the fruit ripens approximately two weeks later than Pérola, and approximately 30 days later than BRS Diamante, an interesting characteristic for extending the marketing window.

Sensory analyses were conducted at the Food Science and Technology Laboratory of Embrapa Cassava and Fruit Crops. The results indicated that the fruits of BRS Sol Bahia and BRS Diamante had high acceptance.

The state technical coordinator for fruit growing at Emater-MG, Deny Sanábio, highlights one of the main characteristics of the varieties, in addition to resistance to fusarium wilt, as their ability to produce sucker-type seedlings — pineapple has four types of seedlings: crown, sucker (at the base of the fruit), offshoot (emerges from the soil at the base of the mother plant), and sucker-offshoot (originating in the axil of a leaf). “This is because pineapple cultivation demands the production of a large quantity of seedlings. To establish one hectare, for example, 35 units are needed,” says Sanábio.

Multiplication of quality seedlings via Rede Ananás

The seedlings of both varieties are being produced by micropropagation in biofactories and should be managed as mother plants. The conventional seedlings (offshoots and suckers) obtained from these mother plants should be used for planting in larger areas. In a strategy analogous to the Reniva Network (Network for the multiplication and transfer of cassava propagative material with genetic and phytosanitary quality), Embrapa established the Pineapple Network, which involves the so-called "taleiros" (plant growers), agents who produce and multiply pineapple seedlings on a large scale, using the stem sectioning technique.

“The Ananás Network works by organizing this chain of planting material producers so that pineapple growers have constant access to superior quality material for planting,” points out Herminio Rocha, an agricultural engineer in the technology transfer area at Embrapa and coordinator of the Ananás Network.

Where to find seedlings

Currently, three biofactories and three seedbeds are being licensed to produce seedlings of BRS Sol Bahia and BRS Diamante following protocols defined by Embrapa. They competed in a public bidding process and were selected (the result will be announced by the end of the year). Responsible for establishing clonal seedling gardens, each company received a batch of explants (portions of plant tissue capable of reproducing a plant under controlled and artificial conditions) of the varieties, so that they can establish large-scale production.

"It is important for producers to purchase seedlings from licensed suppliers to ensure the genetic origin and health of the materials," emphasizes Rocha.

Data on pineapple cultivation

Sanábio highlights the importance of pineapple today for Minas Gerais, the third largest pineapple-producing state in the national ranking (behind Paraíba and Pará). “We have pineapple today as a diversification option. It's a crop that generates a lot of income and employment. Most of these municipalities are in the Triângulo Mineiro region. Today, we have around 5,2 hectares in production and another 3,6 hectares in formation, which have not yet entered production, and a production forecast of around 160 tons per year, with family farming responsible for almost 80% of this total, with an average productivity of 30 tons per hectare.”

The municipality of Frutal, the launch location, is the largest pineapple producer in Minas Gerais, concentrating 2,6 hectares of land dedicated to the crop. Nationally, the annual pineapple production is around 1,5 billion fruits (IBGE, 2024), and Brazil is the fourth largest producer in the world (data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – FAO, 2024).

Ally with the SDGs

This launch is aligned with Embrapa's commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a global agenda adopted during the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development in 2015 with the mission of building and implementing public policies aimed at guiding humanity until 2030 (Agenda 2030).

They address Goal Number 2 - "Zero hunger and sustainable agriculture" - which consists of eradicating hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.

In 2017, the Embrapa SDG Network was created, aiming to manage distributed intelligence across research units and respond to demands related to the 2030 Agenda.