Spanish-grown variety is available at selected stores, with retailer looking to gauge customer experience
Tesco is expanding its melon range with the launch of a sweet, orange-fleshed watermelon, in collaboration with Dutch breeder Rijk Zwaan.
The retailer has also partnered with fruit brand Jaffa and Spanish melon producers Unica Group and Pozo Sur for the rollout, alongside long-standing Tesco supplier AMT Fresh.
The new watermelons, which have the variety name ’Orange Sunglow’, are a UK first and are currently only available in selected stores nationwide.
Specialist technical development manager at Tesco UK, James Cackett, posted on LinkedIn: “This is a fantastic complement to the existing range of established red-flesh and the very quickly growing popular yellow-flesh watermelons, all currently on offer this summer at Tesco.”
The orange watermelon will only be grown in Spain for the next few years, with only a limited number of seeds available.
Rijk Zwaan’s Heleen van Rijn-Wassenaar commented: “Rijk Zwaan and Tesco have a long-lasting relationship, so we showed this innovation to them at an early stage and they immediately showed interest.
“As soon as the variety could be offered to the market with a minimum volume, they were the first to add it to their shelf in the UK.”
She added that this year is being used to gauge customer experience and satisfaction. Meanwhile, other retailers in Europe such as Rewe in Germany have begun stocking the variety.
Other varietal development in melons
Speaking on Rijk Zwaan’s other varietal innovation in melons, Rijn-Wassenaar added: “In the watermelon category we developed a 1-2 kg watermelon range for smaller households, which we label ‘Candy Ball’.
“Conducting market research, we see a clear wish for these smaller types, especially in the Western European countries, as people are very aware of food waste and like to eat fresh and quality product.”
The first variety in the Candy Ball range is Corellana RZ, a microseeded baby watermelon with black skin, whose seeds can be eaten. Tiger and crimson-skinned varieties are also in development for the range.
In addition, two larger, yellow-fleshed varieties called Tropical Honey RZ and Tropical Sunshine RZ have been developed “to bring more diversification to the shelf” alongside standard red-fleshed watermelons. Both are seedless and “deliver an exceptional taste experience”, Rijk Zwaan said.
Rijn-Wassenaar added that watermelons have been growing in popularity over the last few years. And she sees opportunities for further growth in the category through more diversification in size and colour, as well as the development of new seedless or microseeded varieties.
On top of this, the breeder is working on melon varieties that have disease resistance, minimise the need for inputs at production and post-harvest level, and are more resilient under stress conditions.
