External factors such as climate and the labor market are making growing vegetable crops increasingly challenging. The need for reliable varieties that are suitable for the future are greater than ever. Bejo's focus is therefore on breeding robust and sustainable varieties. On the broccoli segment, the new variety Salinas is already showing promising results. Jolanda Duineveld (Head of Crop Brassicas) and Isabel Maria Fernández (Product Developer Brassicas) explain why.
Characteristics
“Salinas is a flexible broccoli variety, this means it performs well under different weather conditions and is very productive,” begins Duineveld. “The variety grows easily to a good weight, has and beautiful dome and makes good broccoli florets.”
“In addition, Salinas is strong and can grow up to 1kilo in weight,” says Fernández. “The high yield at harvest makes the variety extremely suitable for the industry. The good quality of the dome makes the variety also suitable for the fresh market. That’s why Salinas is a valuable addition to the Bejo assortment,”
Availability
“Especially in Mexico, the United States and Spain, Salinas is performing very well,” Duineveld continues. “This is not surprising since the variety was bred specifically for these countries. Meanwhile, in Mexico, Salinas has already become one of the standards during the dry season. In the United States and Spain, it is rapidly gaining popularity. Which immediately causes the demand from other countries to rise as well. Growers from Brazil, Turkey and Scotland are eager to add Salinas to their growing program. And they can. There is sufficient seed availability, so we can meet the market demand without any problems,” Duineveld says proudly.
Harvest
“Salinas has great uniformity in the field, requiring less labor with shorter harvest times. On top of that the open structure of Salinas ensures that the product is easily visible, this allows the harvesters to make a good assessment,” Fernández says. “An additional advantage is that Salinas, because of its open structure, is also well ventilated this makes the management of Alternaria better than other varieties.”
Machine harvesting is becoming increasingly popular. Large labor shortages remain a challenge; innovative machines can overcome such shortages. In Western Europe many trials have been conducted with machine harvesting of Salinas. The variety seems to be extremely suitable for machine harvesting, what makes it ready for the future.
“Broccoli is an important crop for Bejo. In recent years a lot of time and attention has been put into the breeding and production of this crop. Salinas is a great result of this effort. The reliable and future-proof variety is generating increasing demand. As a result, we are also seeing our market share in the broccoli segment grow. The extra time and attention are paying off,” Duineveld concludes.
