The story of Wassana
‘New melon segment for the regional market’
Wassana Sukping is Managing Director of Wassana Farm which, situated north of Bangkok, is one of Thailand’s best melon growers. The company recently collaborated with Rijk Zwaan to launch the new Golden Emerald melon, 34-248 RZ, in Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia. The project required a certain degree of persuasiveness.
Different colour
“In Thailand, the standard melons are green with cork formation. That made the launch of the new 34-248 RZ melon particularly challenging, because it’s golden yellow in colour. We worked closely with Rijk Zwaan to convince all the links in the chain, from seed to shelf, of this variety’s unique advantages.
Since its introduction in 2013, Rijk Zwaan has extensively trialled the variety under local growing conditions. This melon has a very high resistance to mildew. It produces good-sized fruits in the dry season and it has a very strong rind which is not susceptible to splitting.”
Knowledge sharing
“By sharing our own knowledge and that of Rijk Zwaan with partners in the production and sales chain, we’ve created a new segment in the regional market and paved the way for more new products in the future.
With Rijk Zwaan’s support, at Wassana Farm we now produce the golden-yellow Golden Emerald melons and sell them to numerous supermarkets such as Big C, Tops and Tesco Lotus. We intend to continue to build on this success by introducing more new Rijk Zwaan melons in the future.”
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