News

Rijk Zwaan is pleased to invite industry professionals from around the world to its Global Melon & Watermelon event in CED La Palma, with this year’s theme: ‘Freshly Forward’. During this event, visitors can expect on-site field visits to see the company’s newest innovations and strong foundation concepts. In addition, visitors can gain valuable insights on future challenges and technology for melon and watermelon. The event will be held from 4-6 July in Cartagena and will be highlighting Rijk Zwaan’s new watermelon concept: Candyball.

On 1 July, the European committee of the International Bremia Evaluation Board (IBEB-EU) published three widely occurring new variants of downy mildew in lettuce: Bl:38EU, Bl:39EU and Bl:40EU. A considerable number of Rijk Zwaan’s current lettuce varieties are resistant to these three new races.

The Salatrio concept – a single, colourful head of ‘living lettuce’ made up of three different types – has been around for years and continues to gain popularity worldwide. At the Salatrio Client Demo in early May 2023, Rijk Zwaan showcased 40 innovative combinations of leafies: more robust, more productive and easier to work with, offering more crunch, more crispiness and more convenience. “Growers are very excited to test these for themselves,” says Crop Coordinator Peter Sonneveld. Read on for the five key insights from the demo.

At last week's Global Tomato Congress in Rotterdam, vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan presented its solution to the Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV). The annual Global Tomato Congress brings together leading professionals from around the world to discuss the latest developments in the tomato industry.

Rijk Zwaan has been active in vegetable breeding since its foundation in 1924. The company is now launching a new breeding programme for soft fruit, aimed at broadening its product portfolio with strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Construction work for a new greenhouse at Rijk Zwaan’s facility in Dinteloord (the Netherlands) marks the official start of the soft fruit breeding programme.

The latest video in Rijk Zwaan’s ‘The future is sky’ series features the Canadian grower Foothill Greenhouses. In the video, the two companies discuss their partnership and Foothill’s experiences with its main cucumber variety for summer, Verdon RZ.

Our consumer facing platform ‘Love My Salad’ is celebrating the success of its budget campaign, created to encourage British shoppers to buy and cook more vegetables.

Cauliflower is a popular vegetable that is grown on almost all continents. However, the clubroot pathogen causes considerable crop damage in many production regions. With its clubroot-resistant summer variety Paxton RZ, Rijk Zwaan offers growers a solution to this frustrating problem. “Growers have peace of mind thanks to the harvest reliability in combination with sales flexibility,” says breeder Evgeny Novoselov.

Since last year, leek growers have had more varieties to choose from. Rijk Zwaan is aiming to play a serious role in this important crop, following an intensive period of development work. It has initially launched four strong new varieties that pave the way for a complete portfolio of hybrid leek varieties, that helps leek growers to address today’s challenges. Here, three key Rijk Zwaan employees discuss the importance of collaboration, their drive to support customers’ future growth, and the company’s ambitions.

The new Training & Demonstration Centre HortiSenegal project kicked off in Kirene, Senegal, on 9 March. In this initiative by vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan and co-funded by the Dutch government, a consortium of companies will provide training to local farmers. The goal is not only to increase the cultivation of fresh and food-safe vegetables in Senegal, but also to generate a better income for growers.