On the 17th and 18th of April, De Ruiter and one of the distributors in Russia OOO Agrofirma “Semagro” organized an event to bring Russian growers and traders together to share experiences of De Ruiter's assortment.
More than 60% of Russian and Belarusian tomato growers participated in the event, proving the great interest in knowledge sharing. After the opening speech of Alexander Zvyagintsev (De Ruiter/Seminis sales manager Russia & CIS) and Yaan Veskivyali (general director of Semagro) there was focus on the crop.
Costs versus revenue
One of the three crops specialists of the distributor showed a general overview of De Ruiter's portfolio with a focus on beef tomatoes like Torero and Ducovery.
Jack Endhoven, De Ruiter Key account manager, focused in his presentations on the general costs of a tomato crop, the differences in light density and on the varieties Merlice, Sevance, Prunus, Volantis and Journey. Sevance drew great attention as medium truss tomato thanks to the color, taste and yield potential. In plum tomatoes, Jack showed the differences between the 3 varieties Prunus, Volantis and Journey.
Jack pointed out that all three varieties show resistance against potential damage during transport.
Benefits of rootstock
In the last part of his presentation he showed the reasons to use rootstocks with the objective to increase the marketable yield. THese include extra vigour, endurance, a pest and disease resistance package and plant health & balance.
"Only a minority of Russian and Belarusian growers use rootstocks, despite the fact that the added value is significant", Jack showed.
Pink, orange and yellow
Natalya Rubleva, a crop specialist of Semagro, gave extra attention to cherry and cocktail varieties like Juanita, DRC 564 and Picolino.
Both segments are more under attention thanks to growing consumer demand. After that there was a clear focus on pink, orange and yellow tomatoes in all sizes, like Beorange, Organza, SV0948TS and Tomimaru Muchoo. Especially the interest in the pink beef tomato Tomimaru Muchoo with the unique taste profile (with extra umami) is growing in Russia.
In the afternoon the Dutch advisor Kees Kranenburg gave a technical course to share his experiences from different perspectives.
Day 2: Focus on chain
Dmitry Syisoev, manager of Russian retailer Lenta explained their way of working and the close collaboration with their growers
Nico van Vliet, De Ruiter / Seminis Trade Partnership Manager, shared his experiences about trends and category management positioning.
At the end of the day, De Ruiter and Semagro looked back on a successful event.
For more information:
De Ruiter
www.deruiterseeds.com