Gautier Seeds offers something different worth to try:
“Taste, quality and presentation will become more important than yield”
When selecting their new varieties, Gautier Semences prefers to focus on taste and presentation above yield. The French seed breeder is assured of the fact that these two characters are going to be the most important ratio’s in the development of the commercial vegetable crops of the future. “The consumer is screaming for taste and presentation”, said Yvo Lens from Gautier.
Since five years, Gautier is positioning itself as a breeder of tasty, eye catching greenhouse tomato varieties. The family business has got a rich history as a supplier of many open field vegetable varieties, but over the years they it also got name as a supplier of greenhouse vegetable seed amongst growers worldwide. They obtain a steady position as a seed supplier for many growers in North Africa and also Western-Europe and North America is becoming an important market for them. Lens: “Since a few years we have a demo greenhouse in the Westland greenhouse cluster of the Netherlands where we welcome international growers and retailers to take a look at our latest greenhouse tomato varieties. Regarding commercial glasshouse vegetables, the whole world is looking to what is happening in the Netherlands, hence our choice to settle there.”
“All of the varieties that are being cultivated in North-American greenhouses, are previously been introduced in the Netherlands, It makes no sense to introduce a variety in the US or Canada before introducing it in the Netherlands.”
Regarding to the trends amongst North-European growers, Lens is seeing more growers shift to the middle coarse-segment tomatoes. “For many years the coarse vine tomato has dominated greenhouses in the Netherlands. When growers walk into our demo greenhouse, they do not see a lot of coarse TOV. But what they do see is middle sized TOV that are eye catching with their deep red color an nice green parts and calex. After seeing them, the first thing they ask me is: “How much kilo’s can I grow with this variety?”. The variety might not have the same yield like reference crops, but the crop itself is something completely different, hence it catches the attention of the grower. This is the bottom line of our strategy: offering something completely different that is worth to try.”
North Africa – North Europe
With roots that go way back in French horticulture, Gautier nowadays is well known for several of it’s varieties. One of them is Piccolo, made famous by dutch grower Jos Looije under the “Honingtomaten” brand. Lens said that this varieties opened doors for the company to introduce other tasty and qualitative varieties in North Europe.
“Step by step we are introducing ourselves amongst growers in North Europe. As a French seed breeder we already have a good position in the domestic market, but France is not a greenhouse country. There is 700 hectare of modern glass, compared to the Netherlands that is nothing. On the other side, France prefers to import from Morocco, which resulted in the fact that we have a very good position in North Africa.”
In Morocco, a big producer of fresh market tomatoes, Lens noted that Gautier has a market share of 65 percent. “In Morocco, 80 % of the growers are cultivating small beef tomatoes. 80 percent of these crops are Gautier varieties, depending on there preferences from quality to labor-intensive varieties.”
To supply North-African growers with the latest innovations in seed, Gautier has set up a 20 hectare research and development selection facility in Agadir. “Besides producing seed, we showcase our latest varieties here and last years we also welcomed a lot of growers from North Europe. They do not only just want to see what are the possibilities of our latest varieties in North-Africa, but they also want to get to know what are the possibilities to do business in Morocco.”
Taste above yield
At Gautier facility’s in North Africa and North Europe, the company is conducting research on new varieties, and according to Lens, taste is becoming more important in this process. “There are several aspect you can focus on when selecting new properties in varieties like taste, yield, presentation, shelf life, resistance to pests, and over quality. For many years, producers preferred yield above taste, but we definitely see this shift, and there is certainly some discussion going on at the moment.” As an example of this, Lens noted the needs of better quality courgette varieties. “There is a big demand for better quality amongst North European courgette growers, and of course we are looking to supply growers with an variety which shelf life is better and lest longer. On the other hand we also try create awareness that it is not always possible to make a variety that makes every body happy.
Gautier´s glasshouse tomato varieties are on display 365 days a year at Nursery Rimato in Honselerdijk, The Netherlands. Together with Yvo Lens, HortiDaily.com paid a visit and made a photo report of the tomato trials. Click here to see the photo report.
For more information:
Gautier Semences
Yvo Lens
yvo.lens@gautiersemences.com
www.gautiersemences.com
