Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds has announced that it has opened a new tomato demonstration greenhouse in the Dutch town of 's-Gravenzande.
According to Bayer, 100 different tomato varieties are grown in the experimental greenhouse, allowing customers to see and taste the varieties for themselves.
The opening emphasises Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds' ambitions for growth in the tomato market.
“We are proud to have opened our Tomato Demo Greenhouse in this fantastic location,' said Joachim Schneider, CEO of Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds. 'It's only been six years since we decided to breed tomatoes for the high-tech market, and we already have a significant share of the market. This is partly due to a number of highly successful varieties which we have recently put on the market, such as the delicious cherry tomato 'Competition' and the vine tomato 'Foundation’. Earlier we introduced the 'Intense' tomato. This tomato has a very innovative characteristic - after slicing, the flesh retains its juice, giving much more quality to products like salads and sandwiches.”
The foundation of the company's success lies in its extremely innovative breeding programs. The most important breeding and research station is located in the village of Nunhem, in the Dutch province of Limburg.
'Our company has more than 95 years of experience in breeding fruit and vegetable varieties,' said Schneider. 'We have built the modern company on the foundation of this incredibly rich history. The fact that we have been able to introduce successful varieties within six years is a direct result of our approach, which we call 'integrated breeding,' in which all R&D disciplines support the breeder. Each year we invest more than €70m in R&D, and more than half of that takes place in the Netherlands. That makes us one of the leading companies in the Dutch knowledge economy.'
