Vegetables around the world

Vegetables are an essential source of nutrition for mankind. They provide us with, among other things, fibre, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and many trace elements. Consuming adequate quantities of vegetables every day promotes good health. Vegetables also give variety to our food with their different flavours and textures.

Professional growers
All these vegetables have to be produced by professional growers. Vegetables should not only be nutritious and tasty, therefore, but it should also be possible to produce them economically and responsibly. Bad yields due to pests and diseases or adverse growth have to be prevented. Yields have to be as high as possible and of the best possible quality, with the minimum use of land, energy, labour, fertilisers and crop protection preparations.

Specialize
Worldwide there is a need for vegetable crops that grow easily, look attractive, are healthy and taste good. Throughout the decades, Rijk Zwaan has specialised in order to be able to meet this need.


International breeding programme
The various climate zones, markets and growing methods demand an international breeding programme. Especially for this purpose, Rijk Zwaan has its own breeding stations in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Spain, China and Australia. These stations are located in temperate and subtropical climate zones. In this way, Rijk Zwaan is able to develop varieties which are adapted to the growing conditions and the local eating habits in all these areas.

Food in the world
Most people live on food which is based on rice, wheat, corn, millet, sorghum, roots and tubers, plus animal products such as dairy products, meat and fish. Of the more than 50,000 edible plant species in the world, only a few hundred species contribute significantly to food supplies. Source: FAO