Australia: Seminis gourmet tomato Entice sees biggest year in Goulburn Valley
Seminis Technology Development Specialist David Campbell said Entice had been significant in seeing growers in the Goulburn Valley move from trellis to ground tomatoes in the last few years, resulting in a vast improvement in quality and reliability of produce, and lower costs than trellis varieties. "The last two years, we've seen demand skyrocket. This year has definitely been the best year in the Goulburn Valley for Entice," he said.
"Traditionally, determinate varieties don’t look very appealing. Entice is very neat, 160-180 grams, very small calyx scar - but the big thing is that it's uniform. There's uniformity of size, shape and uniformity of quality. It's firm, it's red and it travels well. It's the complete package. It looks like something that's come out of a glasshouse.
"There's always been people in the area who've grown determinate varieties for both processing and fresh market. But when we introduced Entice several years ago, uptake across the board was quite rapid because the plant is quite small and manageable. It stays nicely on the bed and it doesn't flop into the inter-row and get trampled by pickers, and the quality of the fruit was similar if not better than from an indeterminate growing system.
"Over time, the producers growing Entice started to see a premium because the fruit quality was so good. For growers using a trellis system, because they were getting smaller returns, the margins were getting tighter.
“When you move away from a trellis, you move away from wiring, you move away from staking, you move away from end posts, you move away from pruning, to just putting it on the ground and letting it grow naturally. That was the big advantage that swung the Goulburn Valley across to Entice.”
Ang Borzillo, of Gillieston Fresh Produce in Tatura, said Entice offered a profitable crop that was extremely reliable and had been well-received in the region.
“When we first started growing Entice, trellis varieties were very dominant in our area, like they are in all tomato-growing areas around Australia, compared to ground varieties. The fruit we grew previously couldn't compete with trellis tomatoes," he said.
“With Entice, we can now compete with trellis varieties, which is why no trellis is grown in our area anymore. Everyone is growing ground tomatoes.
“Entice has put us on an even keel with truss tomatoes and helped us compete with the competition, whether their tomatoes are trellis or indoor-grown.
“What we saw when we started growing Entice was more marketable fruit and more packable fruit off the plant.
“The quality of fruit that you pick, and therefore the marketability of the fruit you have coming into the packing shed, is second-to-none compared to varieties we’ve grown.
“It gives us greater advantage compared with other varieties in regards to what we can do with our fruit – instead of ending up in a fruit shop, it’s ending up on a supermarket shelf."
For more details on Seminis Entice, visit www.seminis.com
