How Salanova® conquered the world
In the 20 years since Salanova® was launched, it has never lost its ‘wow effect’ when the head of lettuce separates into numerous equally sized leaves. Bauke van Lenteren, Specialist Marketing Convenience & Leaf at Rijk Zwaan, still loves seeing it. “Whether at the Fruit Logistica or in online meetings broadcast from the studio, people are always amazed by it.” The ‘one cut, ready’ concept simplified processes in the value chain, providing a boost for bagged lettuce.
Discovery of the multileaf trait
The multileaf trait was discovered in 1995, before Bauke had joined the vegetable breeding company, but she has heard the story of how it happened multiple times. “While out in the trial field, two breeders came across a wild lettuce with a huge number of leaves, unlike regular lettuces. They immediately knew they’d found something interesting. Processing companies were on the rise, especially in the US and UK. The ability to slice a head of lettuce into numerous equally sized leaves with a single cut would offer our customers convenience and efficiency. Moreover, it would mean fewer exposed edges and therefore minimal pinking. It’s impressive that they realised what that lettuce could mean for customers in the future.”
As beautiful as a flower
It subsequently took a decade to cross the unique trait into commercial varieties. The first multileaf varieties were green butterhead lettuce, red butterhead lettuce and red oak leaf lettuce. They had an abundance of equally sized leaves – up to four times as many as normal – and were as beautiful as flowers. “These were our flagship varieties. In fact, Salanova won the first-ever Fruit Logistica Innovation Award in 2006. That was a great acknowledgement from the global fruit and vegetable industry. It created a lot of recognition for our brand.”
Quite risky
However, the path to success was not without its challenges. Rijk Zwaan was the only company offering Salanova, so it was quite a risky decision for growers to choose to cultivate it since it made them dependent on a single supplier. “That delayed the breakthrough in the beginning. But things accelerated when we introduced other Salanova varieties that had evolved from Lollo types with soft, incised leaves. They were slightly different from multileaf varieties, but with the same advantages. This led to more Salanova varieties emerging, including from other breeding companies.”
Breakthrough for crispy variant
Those Salanova Crispy varieties with incised leaves provided the real breakthrough, says Bauke. “I still vividly remember the Salanova Days event in Germany in 2009, where we introduced varieties like the green sweet crisp Expedition RZ and the red sweet crisp Duplex RZ. Thanks to their good shelf life and crispy bite, these varieties were an immediate hit. On top of that, our Australian customers started to machine-harvest these lettuces in higher densities, which marked a turning point. These crispy types were perfect for the convenience market, as bagged lettuce. Today, about 70% of all Salanovas are sold to consumers as bagged lettuce, with the other 30% sold as full heads or as part of a Salatrio.”
Success thanks to chain partners
According to Bauke, Salanova’s success is mainly due to close collaboration with value chain partners such as growers, processing companies and retailers. “For example, the idea of machine harvesting came about thanks to the dialogue between growers and our Australian colleagues. Similarly, feedback from growers and processing companies in Europe during the Salanova Days and Demo Days helped us to keep moving forward. Were they happy with the shape and colour of the leaves? What about the crispiness? And what’s the ideal stem thickness? The open exchange of information between us and our customers allowed our breeders to continue developing the lettuce.”
Salanova conquered the world
Because breeders responded to customers’ wants and needs, Salanova gained a foothold all over the world. For instance, crispy varieties took off in the US because they were suitable for machine harvesting, and they were something new and different in the country’s extensive out-of-home market.
In Europe, each country has its own preferences. “In France, the most popular lettuce types are butterhead, Batavia and oak leaf. Meanwhile, with its striking shades of colour, red butterhead lettuce was embraced by British supermarkets and can now be found in almost every bag of mixed lettuce. That’s also my own personal favourite, by the way, partly because it is so photogenic,” reveals Bauke.
Notably, even growers in Asia have been eager to start cultivating the new lettuce – even in countries where lettuce is not a standard product. Those growers mainly supply to high-end restaurants. “Growers in Japan and Korea use hydroponic cultivation methods, and our attractive multileaf varieties do exceptionally well with such techniques. Additionally, growers are increasingly using Salanova types as part of Salatrio: our concept combining three colourful lettuces in one head.”
New lettuce with a future
Clearly, the two breeders were right in 1995: there was a bright future for Salanova, the lettuce with numerous leaves. However, the breeding work is never finished. Today, our breeders are still trying to look 30 years ahead, because customers will always want something new in terms of texture, taste and shape.
Bauke: “Moreover, the trend is towards using water and substrates more efficiently, eliminating the use of pesticides, and producing as little waste as possible. We intend to keep generating a ‘wow effect’ for our customers with varieties that respond to this trend.”