Product concepts

In more and more supermarkets you can now find novel forms of fresh vegetable products. Some of these products evolved through collaboration between supermarkets, the processing industry, growers and Rijk Zwaan. Some examples of product concepts are the following: Salanova 'One cut, ready!', Florence: a new flavour and a new shape, Topacio: very high useful-product percentage, 4-seasons concept: Galia-yearround, Tricolore: to see them is to want to eat them.

Salanova ‘One cut, ready!’
Salanova is a revolution in the world of lettuce. With Salanova you only need to cut off the base and the head falls apart into ready-to-use leaves. It is the first lettuce concept to satisfy all the wishes of all the links in the chain – including the link of the vegetable processing industry. This product is the result of collaboration between breeders, growers, processors and supermarkets, with the consumer ultimately also benefiting.


Salanova has enormous advantages for processors who produce bags of mixed lettuce types. Salanova is virtually ready for processing; there is hardly any loss of product because only the base of the lettuce is cut off which minimises waste. For more information you can take a look at www.salanova.com.


Florence: a new flavour and a new shape
A wonderful shape, a lively, spicy flavour and a firm ‘bite’. This is an apt description for mini plum tomato Florence RZ, which can be found in a growing number of Albert Heijn supermarkets in the Netherlands under the ‘Romaatje’ brand name. Sales of Florence are a resounding success.
Growers of Florence, a Rijk Zwaan variety, are given intensive crop guidance by Rijk Zwaan crop advisors.

When production in the Netherlands is not possible, i.e. in December, January and February, Spanish growers take up the baton. It is extremely important to Albert Heijn to be able to offer this product year-round. It goes without saying that Florence crops comply in all aspects with the high demands Albert Heijn makes of precisely-controlled crops and food safety regulations.


Topacio: very high useful-product percentage
A long, blocky pepper, weighing a good 400 g sounds like music to the ears of processors. (Blocky means that the pepper is as square as possible; see photo). After all, most of the preparation work is in removing the stalk and the seeds and that takes the same length of time, whether you are cleaning a large pepper or a small one. Another obvious advantage of a blocky pepper is that there is less waste with a square base; the squarer the base the less the waste. It is no wonder, therefore, that processors are very interested in Topacio.
Topacio is already being grown quite widely in southern Europe, especially in Spain where the majority of the peppers are sold locally. Rijk Zwaan has grown Topacio as a trial in Dutch conditions and results are promising.


4-seasons concept: Galia year-round
The 4-seasons concept for melons aims to supply melons of consistent quality, flavour and sugar levels during each season. Growers in Spain are able to meet the demand for Galia melons from April to October. Before and after this period, Israel is one of the countries to take care of supplying good quality Galia melons. From December to end February, growers in Central America also send their melons to Europe.

Until recently it was difficult to meet the high quality demands in Europe from Central America. The travelling distance means that the melons take a long time to get to Europe. Including grading and packing, the time spent in transport from the moment of harvesting in the field to being loaded on board a ship can soon add up to a week. The crossing itself takes another 11 – 14 days.
Reason enough for Rijk Zwaan to invest further in this ‘4th season’. The breeding department of Rijk Zwaan Ibérica in Spain started looking for varieties with a better storage life, without losing out on flavour.


Tricolore: to see them is to want to eat them
Three different varieties of pointed pepper; eye-catching with their attractive, bright colours, shape and flavour. The new Tricolore peppers of Rijk Zwaan are especially popular in South Africa, South Korea and Japan.
In South Africa, Rijk Zwaan collaborates with a grower who supplies the Woolworth supermarket chain direct. In South Korea the varieties are grown throughout the year, on rockwool in heated glasshouses; they are sold through South Korean supermarkets and via wholesalers. In order to be able to introduce Tricolore peppers to the north-west European market we are now looking into the cultivation possibilities in various countries to secure year-round supplies.