Did you know pepper Maccabi is one of Hazera’s most well-known varieties worldwide? This pepper is one of the first pepper varieties in the world, which- thanks to its long shelf life- is sold truly red for the fresh market, which was innovative at the time. Launched in the 1970’s in the USA and Mexico, Maccabi is still a main player and is being sold to this day.

Today, Hazera’s pepper portfolio is the result of years of intensive research and development to create sweet pepper varieties of all types.

We are inspired by nature. We want our crops to be as healthy as possible. In our development process we focus on new solutions, breeding disease free crops to strengthen the global food system.

Everything starts with growing together.

Would you like to learn more about our pepper varieties? Do not hesitate to contact us.

Staay Food Group and Hazera Seeds present new watermelon

Exceed mini watermelon nominated for Fruit Logistica Innovation Award 2024

The Exceed mini watermelon has been nominated for the 2024 Fruit Logistica Innovation Award, marking a proud moment in the long-standing partnership between Staay Food Group and Hazera. The winner will be announced at Fruit Logistica in Berlin (7-9 February), where Staay will be present to premier the Exceed watermelon.

Mark Loojenga, Marketing Manager at Staay Food Group, and Michal Taraska, Global Value Chain Lead at Hazera, discuss the product, the partnership and what to expect at the Food Logistica.

Exceeding expectations
According to Mark and Michal, the Exceed watermelon has earned its nomination through a unique combination of qualities that benefits growers, retailers and consumers. “The Exceed watermelon is a durable and eco-friendly variety, with strong resistance to diseases like powdery mildew and has plants that provide multiple harvests. Not only does this make life easier for the grower, but it also requires less fungicides and significantly less water than the production of traditional watermelons”, Mark says. Michal adds that this also helps reduce food waste: “Exceed makes it possible to reduce losses in production and during transport.”

“And due to the variety’s extended shelf-life of over 5-10 days longer than traditional watermelons, this variety displays a long-lasting freshness in both supermarkets and consumer’s homes”, he continues. With its compact, uniform size the Exceed watermelon answers a strongly growing call in the (Northern) European and American markets for smaller watermelons. “The size is suitable for ever smaller households and easy to keep in the fridge. And they’re seedless, which is both a major convenience for consumers and a waste-saver.” Mark adds. “But it’s the taste and color they come back for.” Michal: “The Exceed mini watermelon has a really sweet and crispy taste, as is shown by its above average Brix level.”

Team effort
The Exceed mini watermelon is the latest success in a long-standing collaboration between Staay Food Group and Hazera. “Staay is a strong and dynamic partner, which is key for successfully introducing a new product to the market”, Michal says. He underlines the importance of such a partnership for Hazera. “We can provide the best Formula One car, but we still need a top-class driver to win the race. In Staay Food Group, we’ve found that driver.”

An analogy Mark wholeheartedly agrees with. “Hazera provides top-quality seeds that are perfectly suited for our fields in Costa Rica. And with this newly developed variety, we perfectly reflect the demands of the market; we’re able to grow the right products. The Exceed mini watermelon is another step in our close and fruitful cooperation.”

Premier release at Fruit Logistica Berlin
The premier release of the Exceed mini watermelon for the European market will take place at Fruit Logistica, where Staay Food Group will be present at stand B45 in hall 3.2. “Here, we will also display a selection of other products we grow and offer ourselves,” Mark elaborates. “For the first time we can show our three club varieties of colored pears together: The Red Conference, Early Desire and Dazzling Gold are all exclusively available through Staay Food Group. Secondly, we show our hydroponic lettuces, and finally our wide range of available vine tomatoes. In addition, we will bring special attention to our branch in Venlo, which focusses on the food service industry. This location provides a quite unique service for the German market, where customers can buy products per box instead of per pallet and can combine different products on one pallet. This is ideal for restaurants, who usually don’t need entire pallets of one product.”

The prize-giving ceremony for the innovation award will take place on 9 February 2024, 2.30 p.m. at the FLIA Technology special exhibition area between Halls 1.1 and 2.1. Mark and Michal agree this nomination “shows we are on the right track in our team effort to successfully align the development, cultivation, sales and marketing of excellent and innovative products.”

Staay Food Group is an international cultivation, sales and marketing organization in fresh fruit and vegetables with a global network; The World is our Garden. Staay Food Group is a family business, founded in 1946. It delivers tailor-made products to customers in retail, wholesale, foodservice and processing.

HAZERA: Growing Together
Hazera’s headquarters are situated in Israel and The Netherlands, with subsidiaries in twelve countries and an extensive distribution network providing services in over 100 additional markets. This worldwide presence enables us to be close to our customers.
Hazera is part of the Limagrain Group, an international agri-business based in France. Being a farmers’ cooperative, the Limagrain Group understands the needs of its customers and has grown to become the largest seed company in Europe, specialising in vegetables, field crops and cereal products. Limagrain’s vegetable seed division is the second largest company in the industry.

Growing up on his family farm in Poland, Michal Taraska developed two main interests: agriculture, coming from the family business, and the commercial aspect, stemming from his grandfather who owned the bank in their village. Now, he combines those two passions in his role as Global Fresh Chain Lead for Hazera. In this article, Michal introduces himself and shares his insights on the Global Tomato Congress (GTC) he recently attended in the Netherlands. 

“What I like about working in the seeds business is that you are involved right from the beginning of the process. These early stages are crucial for producing quality products,” Michal says. And when it comes to growing fresh produce, he knows what he is talking about. Having grown up surrounded by crops like onions, sugar beans, and wheat grown for seeds, Michal pursued an Agriculture Course at the University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz, followed by a series of jobs with leading seed production companies. For the past 8 years, Michal has been further developing his expertise with the Limagrain group, spending the first five years as the Sales and Development Manager in HM. Clause, and the past three years as a Project Manager responsible for partnerships with retailers.

From local to global impact

“One of our main projects there was to promote our Rosamunda Tomato variety in the fresh chain market,” Michal says. “It was a significant challenge since the Fresh Market was considered saturated and standardized. However, thanks to a strong team effort and a lot of hard work, we managed to introduce our innovative variety on the shelves of many major supermarkets and retailers. It’s an achievement that I’m very proud of.” His successful leadership role in this project led Michal to the conclusion: “If we can achieve this in Poland, can we also do it in other markets and on a global scale? It’s a great challenge with a lot of responsibility, but I’m ready to embrace it.”

Professional goals

As the Global Value Fresh Chain Lead of Hazera, Michal wants to continue getting Hazera’s products on the shelves of major retailers worldwide. “We have fantastic products and innovations that I want to introduce to the world. Another important goal of mine is to develop strong relationships with the people within our company and sister companies because achieving our goals will always be a team effort and lead to team victories. My new position combines the three things I love most about our field of work: the inspiring people, a healthy product that can have a positive impact on people’s lives, and the challenging projects we undertake.”

Inspiration all around

To find solutions for the challenges that come his way, Michal draws inspiration from two main sources; other people and the world at large. “I believe that listening to others, especially those with different perspectives, is an essential resource for generating new ideas on how we approach our business. But inspiration also comes from the world around you. I draw a lot from my hobby, kitesurfing. The interaction with wind and water allows me to recharge my batteries and enter a creative state of mind where my best ideas emerge.”

Global Tomato Conference 

“My first attendance at the GTC left a strong impression on me,” Michal says. “It was inspiring to meet numerous experts from the seed industry and affiliated businesses all in one place. However, I was somewhat surprised by the relatively low number of growers and retailers in attendance. I believe events like this play a crucial role in knowledge sharing and collaboration, ultimately contributing to our collective goal of helping growers address the challenges they face. But I see opportunities to enhance the value of a conference like this by expanding its scope and involving more retailers and growers.”

“I was impressed by the consistent quality of Hazera’s products on display and the positive reception they received,” Michal continues. “The combination of firmness, extended shelf life, visually appealing characteristics, and delightful taste make Hazera’s tomato varieties a compelling choice for both retailers and consumers.” Michal concludes with a final lesson learned from the GTC and advice for growers: “Striking a right balance between providing resistance to viruses and maintaining delicious taste  will enhance the overall desirability and marketability of the tomatoes produced, benefiting both producers and consumers.”

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The vegetable seed company Hazera has a long history of growing cucumbers. Hazera contributed to the birth of improvements in cucumber genetics, especially in the minicucumber. While continuing these improvements, the company is also adopting other varieties, conquering new markets and exploring new marketing possibilities. A roundup of the latest developments with Hazera’s Global Cucurbit Product Manager, Mark van der Zouwen.

Cucumber comes in a wide range of varieties, from 10cm baby cucumbers for snacking to the famous 30cm cucumbers for non-heated or high-tech heated greenhouses, with mini cucumbers (also known as beit alpha), slicers, varieties for making pickles, as well as a wide variety of Asian varieties. Mark van der Zouwen tells us, “The Hazera story began with the mini cucumber, which is mainly grown in non-heated greenhouses in the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, Central Asia, as well as in the Americas. Today mini cucumbers are also grown in heated greenhouses in North America and Northern Europe. Currently, Hazera covers the entire range. Since the 1980s we have introduced many groundbreaking innovations; for example, significant improvements in fruit quality (uniform shape and colour), a drastic improvement in production, adaptability to different growing conditions and, more recently, long shelf life. In the early eighties we also began to specialize in the long variety for non-heated greenhouses, especially in the Mediterranean region. Here we introduced similar innovations, including extended shelf life (many will remember the Suprami variety), and recently created varieties with combined resistance to both powdery mildew and viral diseases such as CVYV and CYSDV.

In mini varieties, Hazera is currently among the top 3 cultivation companies in the world, with varieties very well adapted to the Mediterranean, Middle East and Central American markets, «Our market shares in mini varieties they are growing steadily, and we have expanded our cultivation activities, locating them in the very center of these regions. In addition to the highly successful varieties for spring-summer such as Bereket and Dennis, we are now launching new varieties also for the most stressful cold season as successors to Cohiba. A very interesting development is the midi cucumber for heated greenhouses like our Nikifor spring-autumn variety, which is giving high yields and high fruit quality, for example in Poland, where high-tech growers are using it.”, Mark said. Recently the Hazera crop has also been preparing strong business prospects with the baby cucumber, with 8-12cm fruits, which are rapidly gaining popularity in many markets where healthy snacks and convenience are seeing a real boom. The long variety is receiving a lot of attention once again, boosted by new cultivation activities in Spain. Here, Hazera recently launched the highly successful Batallón variety for Almería and the Granada region. Mark tells us, “This is a winter variety with excellent color, length and durability, and virus resistance. We are sure that the development in the cultivation of long cucumbers in Spain will have a positive consolidation in other regions with similar growing conditions, such as Greece, Mexico, Oceania and South Africa.”

One of the latest developments is activities to enter the Chinese market, for which Hazera has recently started cultivation activities. Mark tells us, “With our wealth of experience as a solid foundation, our ambition is to incorporate the needs and varieties for the Chinese market into our programs. If we want to establish ourselves as a global specialist, we must be present in this growing market, which is the largest in the world and very open to innovations. China’s cultivation and consumption are very different from those in other regions. Therefore, we must be very attentive and respect the needs and traditions of the Chinese, while offering innovation in our products.” What will the future look like in cucumber for Hazera? Mark replies, “We will extend our farming activities to all important regions for this global harvest. Our rich gene pool will be used to create a genetic diversity perfectly suited to the main production areas. Disease resistance, especially root and viral diseases, will be crucial, and could be a way to avoid costly grafting. We will adapt our varieties to high-yield cultivation techniques. And last but not least, we will develop products that meet the needs of the entire fresh produce chain. The objective is to search for possible innovations to convert bulk products into products that offer greater convenience and ensure greater added value for consumers. After all, they are the ones who consume the final product and for whom we work day after day.”

The Guanajuato Agrifood Expo is an event held in Irapuato, Guanajuato since 1996, considering its Agricultural, Horticultural, Agro-Industrial vocation focused on making business contacts between agricultural companies and visitors from the same field. Based on the supply of inputs, agricultural and agro-industrial technology by the exhibiting companies, and the demand for information to learn about the latest in agricultural production systems and product marketing required by agricultural visitors.

It has more than 630,000 m2 of surface, where different companies from all over the world have the opportunity to participate by showing their products and services. Attendance at this event amounts to 120,000 visitors and more than 1,300 exhibitors gather. This year Hazera will have the honor of participating in the #expoagroalimentaria Guanajuato, considered the most important agrifood event in Latin America, which will take place from November 9 to 12, 2021.

We invite all our clients and the general public to visit our stand, which is located at Interior Nave-A local # 125. This is an excellent opportunity to see our high quality fruits in open fields, greenhouses and tunnels. This year, Hazera will present a wide range of crops and varieties, such as: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and more. We will be happy to provide any additional information, at your request.

See you there!

Hazera Mexico had the opportunity to hold its traditional field day at our agricultural station from February 14 to 16, where the main objective was to strengthen business relationships with our main distributors and customers, as well as provide them with the attention and courtesy they deserve.

We had the satisfaction of being able to show visitors our wide range of successful seed varieties with the quality that distinguishes us, as well as being able to spend a pleasant and enjoyable time with them.

“These demonstration days are a great opportunity for producers and marketers to get to know our broad portfolio of our new products, as well as those already positioned in the market, and learn about their main characteristics, which market they are focused on, etc.”

We thank all the people who visited us, see you next time!

The tomato is a popular and nutritious fruit that we usually refer to and use regularly as a vegetable. Tomatoes contain a wide variety of nutrient and non-nutrient substances with proven health benefits. These components work together to create the healthy qualities of the tomato.

Tomato components and their health benefits:

Lycopene

Lycopene is a fat-soluble substance found in the blood and in the tissues of the testicles, adrenal glands, liver, prostate, breast, colon, and lungs. Tomato products contain higher concentrations of lycopene than any other plant source, although lycopene is available in other plant foods, such as watermelon, papaya, red grapefruit, and guava.

Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant and may help reduce the risk of some types of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Since lycopene is responsible for giving tomato its red color, the redder the fruit, the greater the amount of lycopene it contains.

Vitamin C

An essential vitamin that also acts as an antioxidant. It can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Vitamin C contributes to the formation of connective tissue, maintains the health of capillaries, thereby preventing minor bruising, and keeping gums healthy. It also helps the body access non-heme iron or iron from herbal sources. A medium-sized tomato supplies almost half of the amount of vitamin C recommended for daily consumption.

Vitamin A

An essential vitamin important for normal cell growth. Helps the development of healthy skin, hair and mucous membranes. Supports proper vision, development of bones and teeth, and reproduction. Tomatoes contain beta-carotene, a phytochemical that the body converts to vitamin A after you consume it.

Vitamin K

An important vitamin for blood clotting, which helps prevent haemorrhage (excessive, uncontrolled bleeding). Vitamin K is also important for bone health through mineralization. Vitamin K can be obtained from foods such as tomatoes, although it can also be produced by bacteria in the intestines.

Potassium

An essential mineral that helps regulate blood pressure and muscle contractions. It can reduce the risk of kidney stones and bone loss.

Dietary fiber

The part of an edible plant resistant to digestion. Dietary fiber can help digestion by preventing constipation. Tomatoes also contain, in smaller amounts, many other vitamins, minerals, and other healthy substances. These include: various B vitamins (including folic acid), vitamin E, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorous, tryptophan, and protein.

A medium-sized tomato (148 grams) contains the following ratio of recommended daily levels of various nutrients, based on a 2,000-calorie daily diet.

The Guanajuato Agrifood Expo is an event held in Irapuato, Guanajuato since 1996, considering its Agricultural, Horticultural, Agro-Industrial vocation focused on making business contacts between agricultural companies and visitors from the same field. Based on the supply of inputs, agricultural and agro-industrial technology by the exhibiting companies, and the demand for information to learn about the latest in agricultural production systems and product marketing required by agricultural visitors.

It has more than 630,000 m2 of surface, where different companies from all over the world have the opportunity to participate by showing their products and services. Attendance at this event amounts to 120,000 visitors and more than 1,300 exhibitors gather. This year Hazera will have the honor of participating in the #expoagroalimentaria Guanajuato, considered the most important agrifood event in Latin America, which will take place from November 9 to 12, 2021. We invite all our clients and the general public to visit our stand, which is located at Interior Nave-A local # 125. This is an excellent opportunity to see our high quality fruits in open fields, greenhouses and tunnels. This year, Hazera will present a wide range of crops and varieties, such as: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and more. We will be happy to provide any additional information, at your request. We are waiting for you!!