Cauliflower and broccoli

Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) and broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) are traditional European crops that have shown great development in Asia, while their presence in Europe is quite stable. Statistical data on cauliflower are available, whereas for broccoli they are merged with those of cauliflower and with cabbage, and so its trends are not easy to determine. During the 1999-2005 period the harvesting area of cauliflower increased by about 28% mainly as a consequence of the significant increase in China, from 219.000 ha to 363.000 ha, and in India, from 250.000 ha to 280.000 ha, (FAOSTAT 1999; FAOSTAT 2005). These two countries account for about 70% of the total Asian harvesting area with a production of about 7.4 and 4.8 million tons for China and India respectively, covering about 93% of Asian cauliflower production, which amounts to 13 million tons. On the other hand, during the same period the harvesting area in Europe reduced by about 9%, with a production of about 2.4 million tons. In Italy, a slight increase in harvesting area was observed, with a total production of about 513.000 tons (FAOSTAT 1999; FAOSTAT 2005). World cauliflower yield is about 18.3 tons ha-1 and varies greatly among the main producer countries; from 22.1 to 15.4 tons ha-1, respectively in Italy and in France (FAOSTAT 2005). The interest in cauliflower and broccoli cultivation has grown in recent years due to the genetic improvement programmes carried out in several countries, mainly in Asia, Europe and the USA, and due to the new opportunities offered by the food industry in exploiting traditional and new phenotypes in new transformation processes. Also, the healthy compounds contained in the produce of several brassicas which allows them to be defined as functional foods, are important for increasing the consumption of cauliflower and broccoli. The great diversity still present in several germplasm banks which could be exploited to provide new horticultural items, is important for breeding programmes aimed at satisfying new consumer requirements. In this context, recent scientific results, in terms of knowledge and understanding of the genetic resources available for Brassicaceae, the traditional and new breeding techniques, and the current breeding tasks are summarised here.