Public gets rare glimpse inside Summerland Research and Development Centre

Biting into that scrumptious and delicious apple you buy from the store doesn’t happen by chance, it’s by science.

At the Summerland Research and Development Centre, scientists are dedicating their lives to studying apples and other tree fruit.

“We are trying to develop better apples which have good texture, which taste well and have a better flavour,” said research scientist Amritpal Singh.

Singh breeds apples for consumer preference and disease and pest resistance.

“Apple breeding is a very long-term project. It takes up to 25 years to develop a new variety of apples.”

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The federally-operated research centre has a mandate to promote competitiveness in the Canadian apple industry.

“The Canadian growers have access to newer cultivars which have much higher market value and are easier to cultivate,” Singh said.

It also carries out other research like developing diagnostic tests to detect apples viruses.

“We’ve definitely helped farmers in the Okanagan Valley,” added Michael Bernardy, Biologist and curator of the plant virus collection.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We've definitely helped farmers in the Okanagan Valley," added Michael Bernardy, Biologist and curator of the plant virus collection.

The public got a rare glimpse at the apple experimentation and other projects on Saturday during an open house today to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday.

The centre offered guided field tours and interactive displays, public presentations on the centre’s history, and activities for kids.

Summerland resident Aart Dronkers found the event informative.

“You tend to go into a store and just buy a product and eat it, like it or not like it, but you don’t really realize what’s really behind it to create the product you’ve just eaten,” he said. “So I think it’s a typical thing, for me to! I’ve seen things today already I’ve really not known before.”

It was an eye-opening experience for many fruit lovers.

“It’s important for everybody to know what’s behind growing fruit,” Dronkers added.

The Summerland Research and Development Centre was established in 1914, in the heart of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia.

The Centre consists of two independent research sites: Agassiz and Summerland.