"The number of varieties in Romaine lettuce is growing quickly"

Arno sees a number of parallels between selling cars and seeds. "We receive all customers personally. This gives it a bit of depth and conversation and you can play into the desires of the visitors. We like to listen to them so that we can adapt our programmes to this." Until the last day there was interest for the tour of the demo field. Some crops still look great, most are past their best. Arno: "But it is also important to show what a variety can do."

Rijk Zwaan is the only breeding company that has a demo field with early crops in the Netherlands. From June 19 to July 7 visitors could see it. Most came for the innovations. Cutters show a lot of interest for the available varieties and improvements. Arno: "We notice that the convenience trend continues. Consumers want cut lettuce and stir fry vegetables ready to use in a bag. This is also important information for growers."

Rijk Zwaan is big in lettuce crops. This crop takes up most of the demo field. Lettuce with all kinds of leaves, colours and densities, strong against edges and of course the crops with and without Knox, the convenience innovation in lettuce. Rijk Zwaan claims that Knox extends the shelf life of lettuce by at least two days, as it prevents the oxidisation of the cutting surfaces. Knox is crossed into around ten lettuce varieties, including Romaine, Batavia, iceberg lettuce, Salanova Crispy and Salanova Butter. A number of new varieties have Knox cor which ensures that the seed of the lettuce discolours more slowly after harvesting and makes it a more attractive variety for the export market of uncut lettuce. For example for the export of iceberg lettuce from northern to southern Europe. Lettuce growers were also particularly interested in the edge sensitivity of varieties. Arno: "In practice there are now problems with this. Our lettuce varieties are generally strong in this. It was visible on the testing fields."

A newcomer in leafy crops at Rijk Zwaan is rucola. "The lettuce market is changing strongly," says Arno. "The Dutch are eating less and less heads of lettuce. They are ahead with the convenience trend. German consumers are more reserved. Open ground lettuce has also been completely replaced by greenhouse lettuce. Heads of 300 grams are heavy enough for the fresh market and they are grown in greenhouses these days." These trends can be seen in the variety assortment. Arno: "We used to have 50 different types of butter lettuce, now we only have 30 for the entire world. It's the opposite in Romaine. This is the fastest growing lettuce variety globally. We used to have 30 varieties, now we have 70."

Rijk Zwaan plays into the wishes of the final users. They developed the Salanova multi leaf lettuce with extra leaves that are released after a single cutting movement. "This was a wish from catering," says Arno. They also developed a green lettuce variety as a variation to the pale yellow iceberg lettuce, which colours well in a bag, a fiery wish of cutters when the convenience trend was on the rise. A type of Romaine with closed nerves that was developed for cutter also became a desired product on the fresh market. Colour in lettuce are also a success, a lot of red variations can be found on the demo field.

Besides the wide and innovative lettuce assortment Arno reports other innovations that are interesting for the market. Vegetables aren't just on the menu for dinner in the modern kitchen and Rijk Zwaan is playing into this by developing snack vegetables. Arno tests two types of kohlrabi, one with a purple peel and one with a green one. The inside looks the same, the flavour is slightly spicy and a little like radish. The green peel is slightly milder than the purple. A snack variety has even been introduced to lettuce: Crunchy Snack, a small crispy lettuce leaf of the variety Tendita RZ which you can fill or dip and eat as a small lettuce spoon. Another snack vegetable worth trying according to Arno are the broccoli stems, not just the buds. "We have been able to develop good broccoli. The stems of this variety have a surprisingly sweet flavour," says Arno proudly.