The guava breeding project at the Volcani Institute began approximately 30 years ago by the leadership of the late Dr. Eli Tomer, and is being continued today by Prof. Arnon Dag and Isaac Zipori at the Gilat Research Center.
The main goals of the breeding project are to develop new guava varieties with lower odor intensity and longer shelf-life as compared to the common guava variety grown in Israel, so that they are be more suitable for marketing in supermarkets and export markets.
The new guava varieties of the Volcani Institute are marketed as ripe ready-to-eat, have good flavor and high nutritional quality, and have high levels of vitamin C, between 200-300 mg per 100 g fruit.
At the first stage, four new varieties were registered on, including three white-flesh varieties (‘Omri’, Roni’ and ‘Lior’) and one pink-flesh variety (‘King’). At the second stage, four more red-fleshed varieties were registered (‘Zohar’, ‘Ido’, ‘Yuval’ and ‘Gili’).
Today, some of the new guava varieties are commercially grown in Israel, and we are conducting efforts to increase their commercialization in Israel and abroad.
