Israeli farmers develop seedless eggplant

One of the frustrating shortcomings of the eggplant is its plentiful seeds, which adds bitterness to its flavor and are hassle to dispose of, and often, extracting them leads to some of the meat of the eggplant being wasted.

In an attempt to solve those problems for eggplant lovers, growers from Ein Yahav in southern Israel have developed and begun marketing a new variety of the vegetable which is entirely seedless. This new variety is characterized by an attractive outer appearance, good structure, and a shiny black coloration. It is relatively large, 400 grams on average of which the vast majority is the meat of the eggplant due to the absence of the seeds and the empty space that those occupy in regular eggplants. The shelf life of it was tested and good up to two weeks, relatively long for eggplants.

The new variety was developed through natural insemination. There have been previous attempts in Israel to create seedless eggplant varieties, but these have been too small and thin, and so they did not become very popular.

The eggplants will be marketed under the Ein Yahav brand with the “seedless” designation. Rami Sade, one of the Ein Yahav growers, said “farmers who want to survive in these times are always searching for innovations, such as new varieties which become popular with consumers. The transition to growing this new eggplant variety will only increase the overall market of eggplants, because people who were put off by the bitterness of them will appreciate the seedless variety. A large portion of these eggplants are destined for the local market, but a portion was already exported to Russia and had success there.”

Publication date: Mon 16 Nov 2015