The company is diversifying in watermelons and extending its yellow melon range
For over 15 years Zeraim has had a variety that has ranked as a reference point of the Jubilee type white triploid watermelon: Motril. Its adaptability to greenhouses and to the open air and its earliness, good setting and high production are its greatest values, as well as the uniformity of its fruit and their size (5-7 kg). On the other hand, in the black triploid segment, where it has Morena, the company is developing new materials adapted to production in Almeria under glass. Specifically, there are two varieties undergoing large scale trial phases.
For open air, the company is in a pre-commercial phase with Sirius, a Crimson type triploid watermelon for export, which as well as having an excellent post-harvest, has a size of 3-4 kg that places it in-between mini and standard watermelons. Víctor García del Águila, Cucurbit Product Manager for Iberia, explained to Fruit Today that this material, already on sale in Italy, drew attention at last year’s open days and as a result of this interest its adaptation to Spain was studied. “It is early, it has firm flesh, a deep colour and a high setting capacity, in this way we reach the optimum production yield for this type with a larger number of pieces per plant”.
In the melon catalogue, the company’s commitment concentrates on the Canary Yellow, with Party and Maillot. Party is the latest development and it caught the interest of the distribution due to the golden colour of its skin. Its high sugar content and its firm, crunchy texture, along with sizes of 1.3-2 kg are other values of this medium cycle melon in Murcia.
Many companies from Murcia are completing the cycle in La Mancha with Maillot, thanks to its good size for late plants. And soon they will be able to look at a new development, Azenor (pre-commercial), which with an excellent production that guarantees the size in the earliest plantations.
