Comité Nord

Comité Nord
Phone : 03.21.60.46.60
Fax : 03.21.60.46.62
E-mail : comitenord@comitenordplant.fr
Web : www.comitenordplant.fr

Station de Bretteville
Phone : 02.35.27.86.57
Fax : 02.35.29.69.94
E-mail : aurousseau@europost.org

The Comité Nord potato breeding station is a GIE which has been breeding new varieties of potatoes since 1980. It is located in the Seine Maritime department at Bretteville du Grande Caux.

The Bretteville station is the variety research facility of the Comité Nord, a regional structure of seed potato growers, which carries out seed potato propagation on 10 000 ha under official control.

The objective of the Comité Nord station is to breed new varieties in compliance with future environmental standards. These varieties will be adapted to the potato market in the following sectors :

WARE POTATOES :
Firm-fleshed, washable and good taste quality varieties, as well as earlies and specific mids.

PROCESSING :
French-fries, crisps, instant mashed potato and mids.

STARCH VARIETIES.

Selection criteria for plant breeding

• Productivity and regularity of yield
• Adapted earliness
• Resistance to the main potato diseases: blight, common scab, nematodes, viruses and tuber rots
• Aptitude for mechanization (Resistance to damage and bruising)
• Quality of tuber presentation: Shape and colour
• Cooking qualities of the ware crop varieties
• Qualities for processing and starch production
• Keeping quality (aptitude for storage of seed potatoes)
• Adaptation to particular production areas

The plant breeding methods

An early selection is carried out at the Bretteville site based on 80 000 sowings per year.

Then, we carry out multi-site trials in close collaboration with growers and industrial partners that allow us to characterize the behaviour of the selected hybrids in the different production areas and ascertain their specific features.

Main varieties developed by the Comité Nord Research Station

FRANCELINE, POMPADOUR (firm-fleshed) ;

BONDEVILLE, PENELOPE (ware) ;
CERES, JASON, CENTAURE (starch variety co-bred with the GIPT), CHIPIE (crisps co-bred with the GIPT).

Commercial development

In France :

- By the members of the GIPT (growers and processors)
- By the Seed Potato and Ware Potato Industry of the North Region.

In Germany, Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic : by the EUROPLANT group.

In the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Algeria and Morocco, relations are in course of development.