Italians are ready for Timing Taste

Thursday, 6 May 2010

On the 27th and 28th of April, Enza Zaden held its House Fair Sicily 2010 event. An international group of growers and traders descended upon this annual event which featured a visit to the tomato demo greenhouse, a Timing Taste symposium, and trips to see various professional and regional growers and packing houses.

Active export and marketing policy

The fact that Sicilian growers maintain an active export and marketing policy was once again evident during the interesting company visits and the interest shown by the 120 visitors to the Timing Taste symposium. The symposium treated subjects such as the developments on the Italian market, the trends that Enza Zaden has observed on the European market, and he semi-annual EU supermarket analysis that provides a good idea of what may be seen on European supermarket shelves.

Timing Taste well-received

The responses to the Timing Taste concept were very positive. There appears to be an enormous drive for companies to use marketing to differentiate their products in the market. With a market share of 38% (4,000 hectares) of the total Italian tomato cultivation industry, Sicily is a major player in Europe.

Most popular varieties

The tomato demo greenhouse had an unprecedented broad range of new and well-known Enza Zaden varieties available, representing all of the current tomato segments. Tasting and seeing the different
varieties played a key role in this visit to the demo greenhouse. The varieties that really stood out both in terms of quality as well as taste were the Sunstream, Rosselino (vine mini-plum), Vespolino (vine mini-San Marzano), Brired (120-gram vine tomato) and Naram (rough uniform plum tomato).

Ron de Greeff, Managing Director at Langfruit, visited the House Fair Sicily 2010 and had the following to say: “In summary, I would say it was an interesting House Fair which, in only two days, provided visitors with an excellent impression of the Sicilian production and Enza Zaden’s activities. There were also extremely promising varieties on display which offer many opportunities in terms of their taste and qualities.”