Pink tomatoes
With more than 9,600 hectares of medium tech greenhouse production, the pink tomato is one of the most important greenhouse vegetables grown in Japan. For this reason, Dutch vegetable seed breeder Rijk Zwaan started to increase its focus on improving pink tomato varieties for the Japanese market within its breeding programme."The Japanese greenhouse industry requires a special approach as it is looking for a lot within a variety; they want high yielding resistant varieties but they're focusing on taste as well", said Friso Klok, Area Manager Asia at Rijk Zwaan. He explained that the breeder has been active in Japan's seed industry for more than 25 years already, but that they started to increase their presence in the greenhouse industry ever since the introduction of their pink tomato varieties with built-in resistance against the white fly transmitted Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV).
Rijk Zwaan’s Friso Klok together with Akira Takada and Yoshi Yunoki of Rijk Zwaan’s Japanese partner Takada Seed.
"Together with our local partner Takada Seed, we translated the demands from Japanese growers into our breeding programm. As a result of this we were one of the first to offer TYLCV resistant pink tomato varieties and soon we increased our presence on the local market. Especially in the large medium tech greenhouse industry we see more opportunities for pink beefsteak varieties as this is the largest segment grown in Japan. Many growers are challenged by lots of problems, especially with loss of production due to problems with the yellow leaf curl virus and stemphylium. Yet, the growers still attach a lot of value to taste. Those were the key breeding goals for us when developing new and better tasting varieties. This is now paying off and translates into opportunities in other segments too."
Cherry tomatoes & bell peppers
The introduction of their pink tomato varieties opened the door to Japan for other greenhouse varieties from Rijk Zwaan. The Dutch implemented their experience from the Japanese pink tomatoes into the cherry tomato segment and introduced several cherry tomato varieties tailored to the Japanese market. "Here also taste plays a key role; the Japanese demand resistance and good production, but above all they are looking for taste. This often made it challenging for us as a breeder to create a well-balanced variety that has all of these characteristics. But we succeeded and are slowly introducing our cherry tomatoes to the Japanese."Rijk Zwaan is also using their experience to introduce bell peppers to the Japanese growers. "While still a small segment, some Japanese growers are starting to show interest in bell peppers. This is a completely new segment in Japan, but our standard offer of high and medium tech varieties from our Dutch breeding program fits the Japanese production very well. Bell pepper production is now taking off, slowly but steadily."
A visitor was suprised to see Rijk Zwaan's bell peppers at the recent GPEC exhibition in Tokyo last month.
Japanese cucumbers
The Dutch breeder also looked at another major variety in the medium tech Japanese greenhouse industry; small and thin cucumbers. "We bred several Japanese cucumber varieties, which are characterized by their length of 20 centimeters and their spines on half of the fruit", said Friso. "Currently an increasing amount of Japanese growers are becoming familiar with these cucumber varieties. They are especially attracted by the good production and the leaf spot resistance of the varieties of our Gracie cucumbers."
Japanese Gracie cucumbers from Rijk Zwaan
Lettuce & Plant Factories
Rijk Zwaan has always been one of the global leaders in lettuce breeding, and for many years already the company have been supplying many Japanese open field growers with iceberg varieties. Over the last decennia however, another major development is taking place in the lettuce market with the introduction of NFT and vertical growing. "Unlike in Europe and North America, where vertical farming and plant factories are still in its infancy, Japan has been a front runner in this industry", said Friso. "The country houses many plant factories and it's a common industry.For many years we are supplying these growers with our (Salanova) lettuce varieties."Friso explained that the breeder has been pushing their Salanova on the Japanese market. "Recently it has become an accepted consumer brand in Japan and there are now several growers who are licensed to produce it. It's good to see that it's taking off and that the brand is recognized by consumers who realize the added value. The growers are also doing a great job promoting it, they really believe in it."
For more information:Rijk Zwaan
Friso Klok
Area Manager Asia
[email protected]
www.rijkzwaan.com