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International vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan will be exhibiting at GreenTech for the first time ever this year. The Netherlands-based firm is a valuable partner for investors in the high-tech greenhouse industry. The theme of this year’s trade show, which is being held in Amsterdam from 11-13 June, is ‘Solutions for horticultural projects – top-quality seeds and high-level services’.

New colour combinations in fresh produce displays can entice shoppers to choose the healthy option even more frequently. Vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan is therefore launching a number of colourful innovations: under the Sweet Palermo® brand as well as in snack tomatoes and kohlrabi.

From 11-15 February, Rijk Zwaan opened its 9th Winter Open Field Days in Spain to show the latest innovations and varieties in lettuce and open field crops. Interested parties from the international agri food industry came to the Trial Demo Center in Cartagena to discuss the novelties.

Rijk Zwaan shoulders its corporate social responsibility in terms of both production and consumption by continuously innovating its broad range of vegetables. In that context, the company’s stand at Fruit Logistica 2019 (Hall 1.2, D-04) is dedicated to the theme of ‘Innovating for sustainability’. The vegetable breeding company is presenting its latest contributions towards a sustainable and healthy future, including new snacks, new KnoxTM varieties, lettuce varieties for hydroponic production and many more innovations.

Snack Lettuce ©, an innovation in the lettuce category, has won the Accelera Fresh Produce Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award at the Fruit Attraction 2018. The fair was held from 23 to 25 October in Madrid.

Organic is still booming. In Europe and the USA, the market grew by 5-8% in 2017, and more and more organic vegetables are making their way onto supermarket shelves on the world’s other continents too. Around 40% of all Rijk Zwaan’s varieties are suitable for organic production. Some seeds are organically produced, and others are non-chemically treated (NCT).

This week Rijk Zwaan is present at Fruit Attraction, stand 9D12, presenting new concepts and developments with a special attention for the applicability within the chain.

Although Rijk Zwaan closed its most recent financial year with a slight drop in revenue and profit, largely due to the strength of the euro, the company is continuously expanding its workforce and investing heavily in research and breeding of vegetables.

The research on mildew resistance in lettuce has received a considerable boost. On October 10, the American Foundation of Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) awarded the first research grant to the Crops of the Future Collaborative. This involves an amount of 2.5 million US dollars (2.2 million euros) for the next five years. The award was received at the UC Davis Genome Center in California.

It has been a wonderful year for Gordon Yakel, who is head grower at Delta View Farms in Delta, Canada. The family-owned company is growing 11 acres (3.6 hectares) of the beefsteak tomato Kivu RZ, a relatively new Rijk Zwaan variety. Yakel is very enthusiastic about the results. The yield is better, the tomatoes are bigger and mildew is no longer a problem.