Varieties such as Ventero, Basilea and Bateyo are enjoying the highest prices at CASI
Climate change is affecting crops all over Europe. Not only due to the ‘Cold Drop’ that destroyed thousands of hectares in September, but also due to the increasingly early harvests, with the subsequent produce saturation and rollercoaster of prices that this entails. In general, farmers from Almeria have brought sowing forward this year by between 10 and 15 days in order to avoid the drop in prices at the end of the campaign. “Previously, the limiting factor was the cold and now it is the heat”, explains Luis García, head of tomato development at Bayer. The company’s brand Seminis responds to this problem with one of its star varieties of vine tomatoes, Laujar, for which once again, sales are on the rise, particularly for ecological crops. “It allows handling with intense bleaching from the greenhouse, without lengthening the internodes or losing the setting. It also has the advantage of savings in plant protection, as it is resistant to yellow leaf curl, spotted wilt virus, Fulvia, Stemphylium and nematodes.”
On the company’s stand at Fruit Attraction (7D11) they will display other interesting materials such as the “forgery-proof” Basilea, a green tomato that is exclusively for Nijar as it requires saline water, which is a guarantee of flavour; it also has high productivity, reaching top prices at CASI. Also with very good prices in the cooperative is Bateyo, a loose tomato for long cycle with resistance to yellow leaf curl an spotted wilt virus that has tripled its surface area this year because “it has good flavour, but it doesn’t get soft,” two qualities that are difficult to obtain together.
Calabardina is the reference in Zafarraya and it is grown under mesh in Murcia. It has GG and GGG calibres, excellent quality and important setting in hot weather and it is resistant to yellow leaf curl, spotted wilt virus, nematodes, Fulvia and Stemphylium.
The company has the long-life tomato SVTH3004 in a development phase, with a GG calibre, which sets in both the hot and cold weather and it has an “extraordinary” pack of resistances. Its early plant allows for an extra long cycle.
Nuria Capel, head of cherry tomato development, highlights Zirconyta, Santawest and SV0948TS. The first one, due to the homogeneity of its fruit and size throughout the cycle, its flavour and excellent package of resistances, has been welcomed with open arms by marketers from Granada. The plum cherry tomato, Santawest, also highly recommended in Granada, is particularly indicated for early autumn and spring cycles due to its important setting in hot weather, the fruit maintaining its shape and size and a deep red colour. It stands out due to its significant production and high sugar content. The round, yellow, cherry tomato, SV0948TS, with very high production, good flavour and high tolerance to cracking, completes its advantages with resistance to yellow leaf curl.
The head of development of tomato rootstock, Javier Villegas, underscores that the New Generation from De Ruiter offers a considerable improvement in handling whilst in the seedbeds, greater protection against nematodes and a clearly visible improvement in plant health throughout the entire cycle. All of this helps to obtain the variety’s maximum production potential, maintaining the parameters of fruit quality and early ripening. Along these lines different patterns are included according to the producer’s requirements: Dynafort, Vitalfort and DR0141TX.
