New promising table olive cultivars from the University of Sevilla breeding program

The olive breeding program at the University of Sevilla began in 2003 and is focused on the development of new cultivars with desirable traits for both table olive processing and suited for intensive or super intensive growing systems that use mechanical harvesting.
Since inception, more than 3000 genotypes from different crossings have been evaluated.
Between 2015 and 2019, 30 advanced selections along with 13 traditional cultivars were established in different intensive and super intensive field trials.
Here we report the three new cultivars showing the best performance in intensive (7×5 m) irrigated olive orchards and harvested by means of trunk shakers: ‘US-06-1439’, ‘06-1476’ and ‘06-1388’. These genotypes show early bearing and high production with medium or large size fruits and a high pulp-to-pit ratio.
These cultivars all have high percentage of fruit removal and low bruising incidence when mechanical shakers are used at harvest.
Mean traits in comparison to the two main Spanish table olive cultivars (‘Manzanilla de Sevilla’ and ‘Hojiblanca’) are summarized.

IX International Olive Symposium

P. Rallo, A. Morales-Sillero, M.R. Jiménez-González, L. Casanova, M.P. Suárez

Olea europaea L., cross-breeding, intensive orchards, trunk shakers, mechanization, bruising

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2026.1446.15