34 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM listed diseases are especially important for the Southern Europe production regions and organic cultivations. Internal fruit rot (Fusarium lactis) gets a lot of attention in the high-tech pepper cultivation in northwest Europe. In recent years, pepper vein yellows virus has been problematic in the Mediterranean region. MN: Our breeding projects for resistance against many diseases and pests are very long term, sometimes taking more than 15 years, between the initial cross with the exotic resistant material and the released commercial variety. This is why we are very proud that most of our future varieties will be resistant to pests such as Nematodes (Meloidogyne sp.) and Powdery mildew (Leveilulla taurica), with native resistance traits coming from wild peppers. The list of resistances we are addressing is long: Phytophtora, Tospoviruses, Tobamoviruses, Xanthomonas and many more. In addition, we are just launching a white fly resistant variety. Breeding for insect resistance is a battle fought on two fronts: providing resistance against the pest itself (white flies, thrips, caterpillars) to reduce virus pressure as the pest act as vectors for the virus, and creating resistance to the virus itself as well. ES: What is the biggest challenge for a breeder when developing a new sweet pepper variety? ZS: Be innovative and faster than the competition.  AA: A big challenge is improving traits that are complex in nature, traits that constitute multiple genetic factors and/or are sensitive to environmental and growing conditions: yield, adaptability, (a)biotic stresses and shelf-life, to name a few. NN: A breeder needs to combine external market information originating from various channels like plant raisers, growers, chain and the end consumer with internal vision on how the market will develop. The breeder has to have good relationships with the internal marketing and sales organization to hear devel- opments outside the company. JH: The biggest challenge for a pepper breeder is to take in account and balance all the different wishes of all the different industry players. What makes it extra important is the increasing regulatory pressure. This includes more stringent phytosanitary regulation, but also making sure that all material that we use in breeding is not conflicting with regulations on intellectual property and/or access and benefit sharing. ES: Do you find that you have sufficient access to new ger- mplasm, or has this been made more difficult because of the new regulations on access and benefit sharing? ZS: Monsanto fully supports the aims of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and our policies and procedures for germplasm acquisition, use and sharing of externally-acquired material are in full compliance with the requirements and obligations under ABS laws. Nevertheless, further guidance and clarity on various issues (such as clear definition of genetic resources and R&D within scope) need to be provided by the regulators or national authorities in various countries. Therefore, Monsanto supports cooperative efforts on the part of the industry and regulatory agencies to ensure that the pathway to compliance is clear, simple and as non-disruptive as possible. AA: The access to new germplasm is regulated by country-spe- cific regulations worldwide as well as the European access and benefit-sharing regulation. Currently there are legal uncertain- ties due to missing information on the access and benefit-shar- ing clearing house website, which makes the access to new germplasm more difficult. The multiple legislations should be clear and accessible in English and there should be a practical pathway provided on how to access germplasm and how to nego- tiate the conditions of use. NN: Access to new germplasm is indeed becoming more and more difficult due to new regulations. The Nagoya Protocol is putting pressure on the parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity to create more clarity on national access and bene- fit-sharing regulations. This means we have to comply with an increasing number of national regulations, which quite often do not take into account the specifics of the plant-breeding sector, where many genetic resources are used to create new genetic resources. We especially struggle in those cases where the scope of the regulations is expanded beyond wild plants and landraces, and countries claim sovereign rights over commercial varieties that were developed by private breeding companies. JH: Unfortunately, discussions about access to genetic variation only too often end in a discussion about money. It’s a continu- ous challenge to explain that collection trips help preserving agrobiodiversity and contribute to better vegetable varieties for local growers. Therefore, we are building international networks of genebanks and governments and we actively start dialogues with local authorities. MN: Innovation is the core motivation of every breeder and access to genetic diversity is key for innovation. This has never been a blocker for us, as we have large internal wild collections, and also access to national gene banks, but we are eager to see clear access and sharing guidelines implemented. ES: What are the innovations (technological, genetic, molecular etc.) in the pipeline in sweet pepper breeding? AA: One of the areas we foresee opportunities for the growers is the use of rootstocks in pepper. Although still at the infant stage, they have the potential to become common practice, as is the case in tomato. As Enza Zaden is investing a lot in technology development, more molecular breeding tools are available which give breeders the opportunity to better understand and select for these complex traits. MN: New colours, new shapes, new tastes, higher digestibility are some examples for our future diversification pipeline. We recently released the first seedless snack pepper with enhanced taste and we intend to follow up with a full product line (red, orange, yellow, green) to entertain our consumers. Tribelli peppers ready for harvest. (Photo submitted by Enza Zaden.)