Bejo - Carrot magazine 2020

CARROT MAGAZINE Edition 2020

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page 24

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HEALTHY, VIGOROUS SEED MEANS HEALTHY PLANTS

COMMITTED TO CARROTS? THINK CAREFULLY

ORGANIC OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND IN GERMAN MARKET

CONTENTS BEJO C A R R O T M A G A Z I N E

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FOREWORD

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ON THE HUNT FOR ‘THE NEW NERAC’

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HEALTHY, VIGOROUS SEED MEANS HEALTHY PLANTS

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THE SCHULTE BROTHERS: FARMING THE NEW OLD-FASHIONED WAY

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A CARROT SEED’S JOURNEY

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SLICER CARROTS: MORE EXCITING AND CHALLENGING THAN EVER

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FUN FACTS: DID YOU KNOW...?

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROOT CROPS IN SCANDINAVIA

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CARROT SEED PRODUCTION

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COMMITTED TO CARROTS? FORGET THE OLD ADVICE AND THINK CAREFULLY

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SALTIER WATER CALLS FOR SPECIFIC MEASURES

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ORGANIC OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND IN GERMAN MARKET

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ARENOSA FARM: EXCELLING WITH UMBELLIFERS

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STRAIGHT FROM THE POLDER TO EASTERN EUROPE

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INSECTS IN SEED PRODUCTION: PART OF THE CHAIN OR POTENTIAL PESTS

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HYBRID VEGETABLE VARIETIES: THE BEST OF TWO WORLDS IN ONE VARIETY

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‘THE QUALITY OF THE CARROTS DETERMINES THE CAPACITY OF THE PROCESSING LINE’

Printing Koopmans’ Drukkerij, Zwaag

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A QUESTION OF TASTE

No rights can be derived from the information provided in this magazine. No article may be reproduced in whole or in part without the permission of Bejo Zaden BV and reference to the source.

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MEET THE TEAM

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BENELUX SALES TEAM

Carrot Magazine is published

by Bejo Zaden B.V. PO Box 50 1749 ZH Warmenhuizen The Netherlands T: +31 (0)226 396 162 F: +31 (0)226 393 504 E: bejonl@bejo.nl W: www.bejo.nl Editor-in-chief Karina Hens Editorial team Robert Schilder Joost Litjens Jelger van Weydom Karina Hens Writers Robert Schilder Jelger van Weydom Mirjam Both Danielle Bruin Thea van der Eng Karina Hens La Fleur Rouge Dirk Vanparys Jeroen Vissers Bert Kleiboer Translation Laura Martz Julie Phillips Photography Design in Beeld Petra Tesselaar La Fleur Rouge JEEN Communicatie Bejo Australia, New Zealand, United States, China, France and South Africa Design Nathalie España Layout JEEN Communicatie

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“Seed companies provide healthy and reliable seed with germination capacity and growers entrust it to healthy and balanced soil.”

DEAR READER

Robert Schilder

Welcome to Bejo’s new Carrot Magazine. Once again, we’ve worked hard to bring you a wide range of articles. They delve into cultivation, business, farm management, seed quality and more. We hope you’ll find the issue informative, readable and valuable. If you have questions, comments or feedback about this magazine, let us know by contacting your Bejo representative.

We’ve just seen another season of extremes, with different growers and regions again experiencing big variations. Did your field just barely, or not quite, get the extra rain it needed during germination, or was it in an area where sprinkler irrigation wasn’t possible? We know this has a crucial effect on whether you’re able to grow enough plants per hectare and partly determines whether your field can produce the desired yield.

New laws and regulations are compelling seed companies to modify the composition of coatings. Certain active ingredients are being banned, and alternatives aren’t always available. Fortunately, Bejo has been using non-chemical seed treatments and disinfection methods for years, so you can continue to trust the quality and reliability of our seeds. The limitation of active ingredients in coatings to protect from soil-borne fungi, which can cause problems in plants’ germination stage, still poses difficulties.

Here, the seed companies need help from you, the grower. We provide healthy and reliable seed with germination capacity and you entrust it to healthy and balanced soil. Industry-wide cooperation is the key to great results.

I wish you, your loved ones and your business a healthy, happy and successful year. And remember, our people are always here to help you achieve your goals.

All the best, Bejo Zaden Robert Schilder Sales manager, Benelux and Scandinavia

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ON THE HUNT FOR ‘THE NEW NERAC’ BREEDER WIM ZWA AN: ‘THE BIGGEST COMPLIMENT IS WHEN A VARIETY FINDS A PERMANENT PLACE IN THE MARKET’

BEJO’S ASSORTMENT INCLUDES ABOUT 130 CARROT VARIETIES. EACH HAS ITS OWN UNIQUE CHRACTERISTICS, SPECIALIZED FOR DIFFERENT MARKETS, USES AND CLIMATES. IT’S A BREEDER’S JOB TO DEVELOP THE VARIETIES CUSTOMERS NEED. WIM ZWAAN HAS BEEN BEJO’S BREEDING MANAGER FOR CARROTS FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS. HIS JOB HAS TAKEN HIM TO THE REMOTEST CORNERS OF THE WORLD. “WHAT TYPES DOES A COUNTRY HAVE, AND WHY? AND WHAT DO CUSTOMERS WANT? WE BREED CARROTS FOR ALL OVER THE WORLD, AND WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO ANSWER THOSE QUESTIONS FOR EVERY MARKET.”

A breeder’s job is multifaceted. On the one hand, they work in the laboratory or greenhouse, crossbreeding and testing base material.

But listening carefully to customers’ wishes is a big part of developing new varieties too. That means going out in the field, with rainboots and rain gear as the standard uniform. Zwaan says working with sales representatives is essential to his job. “The sales representatives are well connected to the market and assess its desires for the next 10 years.”

Crossbreeding

Those desires tend to change gradually. And that’s a good thing for breeders; the development of a new variety doesn’t happen overnight. The whole process, from crossing in new genetic material to producing a hybrid with the desired traits, takes an average of 12 years. There are exceptions, Zwaan says. “Since we breed for the whole world, we have genetic material from all over the world.

So it’s relatively easy for us to cross in good traits from one of our foreign breeding programs to a European variety, or vice versa. That creates opportunities in multiple markets.”

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"It’s no use to growers if a variety scores a 9 one year and a 5 the next.

They’d rather have one that always scores a 7 or 8."

Wim Zwaan

Carrot breeding team, Warmenhuizen, the Netherlands

Varying requirements

Short carrots are popular in Asia because their structure suits the rocky soil. In Britain, the ideal carrot is on the chubby side, while the Americans prefer long, slender types. In tropical areas, a carrot’s foliage needs to be strong to withstand the heat. Strong foliage is also a goal in breeding for cooler climates, Zwaan says. If you grow a tropical carrot in the Netherlands, though, it will inevitably bolt. “Disease resistance needs also vary by climate zone. Every market has its own requirements, and they’re very precise. The presence of certain traits can be demonstrated at an early stage, thanks to modern techniques and our understanding of genes.

That speeds up the selection work.”

For instance, some traits – such as a variety’s germination capacity at different temperatures – can be tested by replicating certain conditions in the lab. Once Zwaan and his colleagues have identified the most promising hybrids, the seeds are transported to the trial fields in the different growing regions. This is the only way to assess how a variety will perform under local conditions. The next step, seed production, also takes place abroad. But all the seed Bejo sells ultimately makes its way back to Warmenhuizen, where it’s cleaned, tested, treated and packed. Only in this way, Zwaan explains, can “we guarantee that all Bejo seed is top-quality.”

Reliability

Hundreds of varieties have been developed over the decades that Zwaan has been active as a breeder. What gives him most satisfaction is when a variety finds a permanent place in the market. Perhaps the best example is Nerac, a carrot that’s been around for 30 years now.

Many customers still grow Nerac every year and praise its reliability.

Earlier this year, the Dutch trade magazine Van de Grond published an article about Nerac to mark the anniversary. “It’s been the best choice for us for almost 30 years,” a representative of Cornelissens farm in Zeeland was quoted as saying. >>

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Stability and yields are key priorities for customers, and Nerac excels on both. “It’s no use to growers if a variety is a 9 out of 10 one year and a 5 the next,” Zwaan says. “They’d rather have one that’s always a 7 or 8.”

In the quest to end up with a reliable variety, he isn’t guided solely by good trial results. “I want to know how our varieties perform in the field. We test all our new material alongside our own varieties and our competitors’ main varieties. We do that in the field, in storage, in juice tests and shelf life tests. Ultimately it’s about how the carrot reaches the consumer. If a variety delivers reliable yields and quality, then of course we can always make it a little bit more uniform or smooth or make the yields slightly better. That’s the challenge for us.”

Disease resistance

Across all carrot types, we’re constantly working to improve disease resistances. Breeding them in is difficult, as resistance genes are often accompanied by undesirable traits, which then need to be bred out again.

Another issue is that field conditions are hard to reproduce. To get an idea of differences between varieties, we also perform tests under laboratory conditions. Varieties with particular resistances can be especially useful additions to Bejo’s organic range. But they’re of increasing interest in conventional cultivation too because of restrictions on pesticide availability and ever-stricter maximum residue levels. “In the years to come, resistance breeding will definitely continue to be one of our focal points,” Zwaan says.

A marathon, not a sprint

As mentioned, the path from crossbreeding to commercial hybrid takes 12 years, or six growing cycles. Since carrots are a biennial crop, Zwaan can only assess the results every other year.

New traits, such as better disease resistance, are bred in from local varieties and wild plants.

Developing a parent line in this way takes an average of four years. Then comes plenty of selection work and backcrossing to get rid of the wild genes’ undesirable traits. After four more years, a hybrid can be created. Hybrid varieties have the advantages of combining multiple positive traits and delivering high yields. Here, too, though, it’s impossible to predict exactly which traits will come together.

Many hybrids, then, will be eliminated in later field and lab tests. If one surfaces that would clearly make a strong addition to the existing assortment, then commercial hybrid seed production can begin. The ideal outcome would be the development of a “new Nerac” – a reliable variety that will remain the customer’s best choice for many years to come.

Carrot breeding team, USA

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HEALTHY, VIGOROUS SEED MEANS HEALTHY PLANTS THE UNITED NATIONS HAS DECLARED 2020 THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF PLANT HEALTH. THE AIM IS TO RAISE GLOBAL AWARENESS OF HOW LOOKING AFTER PLANTS CAN HELP TO END HUNGER, REDUCE POVERTY, PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT AND BOOST ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.

Margreet Asma, Senior Researcher, Seed Pathology Research

They’re commendable goals, and vegetable breeders and growers are enthusiastically playing their part in the effort to meet them. At Bejo we specialize in developing and supplying high-quality propagating material.

And this helps vegetable farmers to successfully grow healthy produce.

Changes in legislation, technological advances, and ever-growing knowledge and experience are key to these processes. This article explains how we contribute to plant health when it comes to carrot seed in light of these factors.

Regulations

Where plant health is concerned, protection from pests and diseases is much more cost-effective than dealing with crises. Preventive action is crucial for avoiding devastating effects, and it starts with healthy seed.

Meanwhile, rules around pesticide use are becoming increasingly strict, and intervention after the fact is becoming more difficult. For example, the application of Metalaxyl and Thiram is being restricted, and we can no longer use these products in seed coatings. Guided by research, Bejo has been committed to using non-chemical treatments for years. We’re driven to find sustainable solutions, and our organic program gives us an added incentive. But the fact remains that a reduced range of options makes crop cultivation more uncertain and risky. And this is especially apparent where the soil is weakened and out of balance. Ensuring good soil health, then, is becoming increasingly important. We advise growers to employ resting crops and careful crop rotation. Choosing the right fields is also key to achieving stable growth and a good, healthy end result.

Great genes

Strong genetics are the bedrock of healthy plants. In breeding its varieties, Bejo aims for productive crops that are robust. That means they can withstand some knocks during the growing period under diverse weather conditions, as well as during lifting, and produce reliable yields.

Nerac has proven itself outstandingly well in these respects. Of course, disease resistance is also a priority at Bejo. Carrots are affected >>

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mainly by fungi, such as Alternaria and Pythium.

Nagoya and Natuna, two newer Nantes types, are good examples of fungus-resistant varieties we’ve developed recently.

Controlled seed production

High-quality seed is the beginning of every healthy plant. So every new variety needs the right genetics for producing strong seeds.

Our breeders pay particular attention to this aspect. And during the seed production process we do everything we can to ensure everything proceeds in an optimum manner. We work especially hard to prevent disease in the plants, as this minimizes the likelihood of the seeds becoming infected. If disease does occur, we try to catch it at an early stage, for example by testing leaf samples. We do research to determine when and how the disease infected the plant and how the pathogen got into the seed. Learning from this process enables us to take preventive steps afterward.

Testing the seed

After production, seeds are comprehensively tested according to standard protocols.

Each lot is then cleaned, sorted and treated to ensure optimum quality and meet Bejo’s norms. We test for physical properties, such

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as germination capacity and purity, and the presence of seed-borne pathogens that can affect seed and plant quality.

Cleaning and upgrading seed

Cleaning the seed actually means selecting the seeds with the highest germination capacity from each lot and making sure they are as pathogen-free as possible. Bejo has a comprehensive set of machines for filtering seeds on the basis of shape, weight, surface texture, and colour. We always put carrot seed through our sizing machines, which remove waste material (such as chaff) as well as separating out the size required by the customer.

The colour sorter, as its name indicates, picks out seeds on the basis of colour. This enables the removal of impurities including discoloured, infected or damaged seeds as well as soil and weeds.

Then, if routine testing shows that the seed is contaminated with pathogens, we disinfect it. Bejo has developed disinfection methods including steam vacuuming and hot water treatment. Hot water has proven particularly effective for carrot seed. Both processes are precise; it’s tricky getting pathogens out of seed while preserving its germination capacity.

Treating the seed

Different varieties respond to these treatments in different ways. So we perform highly detailed tests to measure their effects and determine the optimal protocol. And of course we keep an eye on the latest disinfection techniques. We’re currently investigating plasma and ozone treatments.

Finally, we can provide additional specialized treatments at the customer’s request. One is priming, which is increasingly becoming standard practice for carrot seeds. Priming helps seed to germinate more easily and quickly, so young plants get a faster, stronger start in the vulnerable early growth stage.

Priming actually involves pre-germinating the seeds under optimum conditions of time, watering and temperature and then drying them at precisely the right moment. Additives, like those in Bejo’s innovative B-Mox formula, can be applied to provide extra benefits. Having seen extraordinary results with carrots, we now always use B-Mox on our carrot varieties for the northwestern European markets, including those produced for organic cultivation.

Another treatment is the coating of seeds.

This makes them easier to sow and reduces dust. At Bejo we’re always working to improve to our coatings. In 2018, we introduced a new coating that’s more sustainable, thanks to qualities such as a faster drying time, and made of natural materials that decompose completely.

Our organic seeds are now distinguished by a special yellowish colour.

We equip our seed with as much protection as nature allows. Customers can depend on Bejo to supply healthy, clean, vigorous seeds for robust varieties that yield optimum results in well-tended, healthy soil. So growers and breeders can work together to do everything possible to ensure a sufficient supply of healthy, tasty vegetables for the world.

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THE SCHULTE BROTHERS: FARMING THE NEW OLD-FASHIONED WAY WERNER, RANDOLF AND NIELS SCHULTE PARTLY SWITCHED FROM CONVENTIONAL TO ORGANIC CARROT CULTIVATION THIS YEAR AT THEIR FARM IN THE DUTCH TOWN OF SWIFTERBANT. WHILE THEY WERE AT IT, THEY EXPANDED INTO DAIRY FARMING. IT CLOSES A CIRCLE, THEY SAY, IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE. Was Jan Schulte, their now-retired father, a cattle or crop farmer at heart?

In 1961, he started out as a cattle farmer in Friesland. A fire destroyed his farm in 1975 and he restarted as a cattle farmer. However, in the early 1990s, Jan sold his farm. He had a new plan: to start an arable farm – perhaps because he saw that his three sons had farming in their blood.

The family moved to Flevoland.

of labour: Randolf oversees cultivation, Werner concentrates on contract work, and Niels does a bit of everything and took charge of the cows this year. The division isn’t strict, though; they all do whatever needs doing.

Besides a love of the land, the sons have something else in common with their father.

He looked for opportunities and adapted his business accordingly. So do his sons. That’s the

So, cattle or crop farmer? Their dad is both, his sons say. And his genes are evenly divided among them. Werner and Randolf became devoted crop farmers. Niels, the youngest, followed the same path, but cattle farming was in his blood too. So when a farm with about 70 head of dairy cattle went up for sale a few miles down the road, the brothers didn’t hesitate.

They bought it and made it part of their company. So they’ve come full circle: the Schulte family are livestock farmers again.

Going organic

The brothers grow carrots, onions, potatoes, wheat and clover on approximately 120 hectares of land in and around Swifterbant. They also do contract work for other parties, applying crop protection and doing watering and lifting for tulip and carrot growers. There’s a rough division

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From left: Werner, Randolf and Niels Schulte

"Nerac is the most consistent, reliable organic carrot there is."

Randolf Schulte

main reason why they converted around onethird of their acreage to organic farming this year: they saw market demand increasing.

Was the switch difficult? “Not really,” Werner says. “You get advice from all sides. But if we paid attention to it all, we’d probably be out of business by next year. The trick is to filter it.

We have an advantage in that we’ve been growing carrots since the early ’90s, and we’ve also seen a lot in our contract work.”

The biggest changes, in Niels’s opinion, have involved the brothers’ work schedule.

“I’m exaggerating here, but you can grow conventional carrots from your armchair. If you have weeds, you schedule a round of spraying.

You don’t even have to do it on a specific day.

That gives you relative flexibility in your work.

Now we need people to weed. They have to be available. So we have to organize and plan more tightly.”

so it doesn’t rank 10 out of 10. On the other hand, you can sow it from March through June.

It’s the most consistent, reliable organic carrot there is. That’s what we heard from other growers, who we of course consulted before we made the definitive shift.”

Dairy farming: closing the circle

Moving into organic carrots dovetailed perfectly with taking over the dairy farm, which was already organic. One strengthens the other: straw manure from the cowshed can be used in carrot cultivation.

“And that’s how you do circular agriculture, as it’s called nowadays,” Niels says. “We call it old-fashioned with a new name; that’s more our style. But it does close a circle, in more ways than one. And it’s nice for my father, who retired in 2012. He had to choose between crop farming and livestock. There are three of us, so we’re lucky enough to be able to do both.”

Variety: a no-brainer

Once they’d decided to partly switch to organic, the choice of variety was more or less obvious: Nerac. “It’s simple,” Randolf says. “It’s the easiest to sell. Nerac is a bit slower to emerge,

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A CARROT SEED’S JOURNEY WHAT PATH DOES A SEED TRAVEL BEFORE IT REACHES THE CUSTOMER? DISCOVER THE KEY STAGES IN A CARROT SEED’S JOURNEY, FROM ARRIVAL AT BEJO TO SHIPMENT TO THE GROWER.

Carrot seed is grown in, say, Australia.

There, it’s cleaned for the first time by the grower. Then the grower sends the cleaned seed lot to Warmenhuizen.

HEALTH TEST SEED COUNT PER GRAM GERMINATION TEST

The batch arrives in Warmenhuizen.

A sample is taken.

The sample undergoes various tests.

GERMINATION, HEALTH, MOISTURE, SEED COUNT PER GRAM, PURITY, GENETICS Every seed sample undergoes a field trial to physically assess the variety characteristics.

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H E A L T H

Depending on the results of health tests on the received batch, the seed undergoes hot water treatment against diseases like Xanthomonas and Alternaria.

U P G R A D I N G

Heavier and lighter seeds are removed using blowing and vibration, further purifying the seed lot. The operator determines whether an additional polishing step is needed to make the seeds smoother.

S I Z I N G

The seeds are sorted by size. The desired diameter is between 1.6 and 2.4 mm.

The resulting fractions are tested for germination capacity.

C L E A N I N G

The seed lot is cleansed of plant and soil residues.

All impurities and weeds are removed to ensure the seed meets Bejo’s trusted quality standards.

SEED COUNT PER GRAM

S O R T I N G

Now the seed is sorted by specific weight. The various weight groups are tested again. Only the right fractions are allowed through.

GERMINATION TEST PURITY WEED TEST

SEED COUNT PER GRAM GERMINATION TEST WEED TEST

In the next phase, the seed is treated.

P R I M I N G

Priming, or pre-germination, of the seed ensures faster and more uniform sprouting. Bejo’s innovative B-Mox® seed-enhancing formula improves vigour, stimulating the seedling’s growth in the earliest stage and making the plant more robust.

P A C K A G I N G

Finally, the seed heads to the packaging department.

There are different unit sizes, ranging from 25,000 to 5 million seeds. Once packed, the seed is shipped to growers.

C O A T I N G

Growers can opt to have their seeds coated.

There are various options: • white coating = non-chemically treated, • yellowish coating = organic, • green coating = with fungicide.

The active substances in the coatings vary depending on national laws and regulations.

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SLICER CARROTS:

MORE EXCITING AND CHALLENGING THAN EVER NEVER CALL A SLICING CARROT “JUST A CARROT”. THE ORANGE VEGETABLE, A STAPLE FOOD SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL, HAS HAD A RICH HISTORY AND AN EXCITING EVOLUTION. THE MARRIED GROWERS KRIS DEBEUCKELAERE AND KATLEEN MACKELBERG OF STADEN, BELGIUM, SHARE THEIR VIEWS ON THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES POSED

BY THIS CROP. PHILIP HOFLACK AND STIJN VANDELANOTTE OF THE GLOBAL PLAYER HORAFROST WEIGH IN TOO.

Carrots. You can do anything with them, they’re super healthy, and everybody likes them. And for Kris Debeuckelaere and Katleen Mackelberg, they’re an essential part of every work day. On the farm they run, the couple grow vegetables and raise pigs. They have 260 sows, and along with carrots they also cultivate cauliflower, potatoes, wheat and maize.

“My father started growing carrots for slicing 35 years ago,” Debeuckelaere says. “Today we’ve got about 8 hectares.” These carrots are characterized by the required specifications of the final product: a long cylindrical root with a diameter between 15 and 35 mm. Also essential are an intense reddish-orange interior colour and minimal greening on the shoulders. Growth and lifting cracks are undesirable. To avoid them, Debeuckelaere and Mackelberg sow their carrots on 70 cm ridges at 1.8 million seeds per hectare. They plant two rows per ridge, about 6 or 7 cm apart. “We outsource planting to the contractor Gesquière, which has years of experience planting carrots,” Mackelberg says. “We aim for a crop rotation of 1 every 6 or 7 years.”

It might sound simple, but it’s not. “After the sowing period this year, we had to water within the week,” Mackelberg says. “Just after sowing, we had some brief heavy rainfall that caused light soil crusting. That was followed by a whole period of dry wind and 20% to 30% humidity. Without irrigation the seedlings couldn’t break through the hardened crust.”

Pre-germinated seed

Problems like these are why growers often opt for pre-germinated (B-Mox® primed) seed. “In carrots grown for the fresh market, pre-germinated seed is already standard,” Debeuckelaere says.

“Maybe we should be using it more in industrial production. After all,

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this is a crop that demands your full attention, and primed seed gives you a head start.” Since carrots need plenty of water, irrigation is vital.

But droughts are becoming more common.

“Fortunately, we’ve built large water reservoirs,” Debeuckelaere says. “But the local authority

"My father started growing carrots for slicing 35 years ago.”

Kris Debeuckelaere

From left: Kris Debeuckelaere, Katleen Mackelberg and Dirk Vanparys

should really invest in more. At the moment we’ve got enough water on the farm. For now, anyway. But we don’t know what autumn and winter will bring.

“A lot of water is necessary later on too,” he adds. “In soils with a higher pH, scab (Streptomyces scabies) can be a problem, and drought between the appearance of the 4th and 6th leaves is pivotal; that’s when carrots turn from white to orange and are at their most sensitive. Dry, hot summers can also trigger powdery mildew. Then the carrots have to start all over to grow new root hairs and foliage. So an uninterrupted supply of moisture and continuous root growth are vital for profitable cultivation.”

Additional challenges

Weed control poses another test, Debeuckelaere says. “Black nightshade and camomile cause the most trouble. Volunteer potatoes can also be a nuisance. And you’re seeing more and more mechanical weeding and band spraying in carrot cultivation.”

Greenflies also appeared in their fields at a very early stage this year, and it took two or three sprayings to get rid of them. >>

IMPERATOR AND ISTANBUL Istanbul gets its deep reddish-orange colour from crossbreeding with Imperator.

The division between the xylem and phloem is also less visible. The intense red-orange hue holds greater appeal for consumers. While Napa and Nerac are still the standards, trials with Navedo and Istanbul have yielded very positive results. Green top, outer or inner, is rare in both.

Istanbul

Istanbul

Navedo

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Sometimes, though, once you see them the damage is done, and viruses have already been transmitted. “All too often the connection isn’t made, and growers see fertilization as the solution for crops that are fading and not thriving. It’s because of the elimination of Cruiser-coated seeds. It’s a loss for the sector.”

Carrot fly

Debeuckelaere works with the research center Inagro tracking carrot fly emergence. “For more than 10 years, sticky traps on the field have been giving us a good indication of the presence of carrot flies,” he says.

“This enables us to take a more meticulous approach to treatment.

We only start treatment now if the flies are actually there. Recording has also enabled us to see annually recurring peaks. There’s definitely one between 10 and 20 October. That’s a crucial time for carrot flies’ third generation.”

All in all, then, cultivation presents its share of issues. “Using fewer chemicals increases the labour-intensive aspect,” Debeuckelaere says.

“And costs are going up, for example because of multiple treatments.

In the past five years we’ve actually had to work harder to get the same results. Meanwhile the buyer – in our case, a frozen foods processor – expects the same number of kilos. So in consultation with them, we’ve opted for the Istanbul and Navedo varieties. Navedo is a bit longer than Nerac.”

Uniformity

Philip Hoflack is well aware of the difficulties.

His grandfather Michel Hoflack put West Flanders on the vegetable industry map when he founded Horafrost in 1979. It’s one of Flanders’ largest frozen vegetable producers. The first generation to run the family business were farmers; Philip Hoflack focuses on the technical aspects while retaining an understanding of the basic product. Carrots account for about 15% of processing at Horafrost; its other main products are cauliflower, beans and peas. The company’s frozen vegetables are pure and additive-free.

“Consumers like that,” Hoflack says. “Classic orange carrots still make up the greatest volume. Consumers are highly visually oriented, so uniformity of diameter and colour is really important. And that begins at the sorting stage.

But it does vary by region. Eastern European countries, Germany, the United Kingdom, France – they’ve all got their preferences.”

The European market accounts for about 70% of Horafrost’s exports. Within that market, what will happen with Brexit is anyone’s guess. In the United States, the fluctuating dollar presents an additional issue.

“About half our customers are in retail and half in food service,” Hoflack says. “The advantage

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“Consumers are highly visually oriented, so uniformity of diameter and colour is really important.”

Philip Hoflack

is that our products have a long shelf life, up to two years if they’re stored at –18°C. Also, the end customers aren’t predetermined, as they are with canned goods. That means you have more flexibility to do things like change mixtures.” Horafrost processes large carrots, slicers and baby carrots. Sliced carrots are destined mainly for mass catering.

Fast processing

Stijn Vandelanotte oversees cultivation at Horafrost. “Carrots are the salt and pepper of industrial vegetables – they’re indispensable,” he says.

“The whole process is highly streamlined and efficient. First the carrots are lifted by contract workers. After brief storage at the farm or the company, they’re processed. First the earth is removed in a tank; then they’re washed and sorted by diameter (15–35 mm). Any carrots that are too thick (> 35 mm) are sorted out.

“Then they’re steam-peeled to loosen the skin so it can be removed cleanly with a brush roller. The next step is slicing them into discs, plain or crinkle-cut. Then they’re washed again and blanched, and quick-freezing begins. They’re taken down to –30°C. After freezing, the carrots are optically sorted to remove any that have blemishes. Then they’re sorted by size. The expected diameter range varies from customer to customer.”

The whole process is quick; carrots are turned into slices within 45 minutes. About 15 tonnes gross per hour can be processed at Horafrost.

Half the discs are smooth and half are crinkle-cut.

“The choice of variety is determined partly by the industry,” Vandelanotte says. “With carrots, an absence of green top is one of the deciding factors.”

Horafrost uses Bejo’s market-leading seeds. “Napa for early carrots, and

Nerac for standard cultivation. It’s been on the market for 20 years and offers the necessary confidence. Istanbul and Navedo are possible successors in this segment now. We hope they’ll help increase quality and yields. But when the basic product is right, you already automatically get good yields.”

A decontamination alternative?

Horafrost has also had to contend with the problems of recent years. “Weather conditions haven’t been favourable in the last two years,” Vandelanotte says. “The importance of irrigation, not only at the start but also later on, is often underestimated. We’re being confronted more and more with greenfly, carrot fly and woolly root aphids. The role crop rotation can play there shouldn’t be underestimated >>

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From left: Philip Hoflack and Stijn Vandelanotte

The quicker you see a problem, the quicker you can deal with it and limit the consequences. Cruiser treatment helped us to do that in the past, but neonicotinoids have come under heavy pressure because of the bee starvation, and we can’t expect the banned ones to be reintroduced.

The current alternative, field spraying, requires up to 10 times as much active substance, and to me as an agronomist that doesn’t seem like a sustainable solution. So we, like the growers, hope to see an affordable alternative seed treatment soon.”

He adds, “Carrot slices are mainly produced for mass catering, and that’s a highly competitive market. So to keep carrot farming viable, along with practising good crop rotation it’s important to keep innovating on the field, using new varieties that give a greater net result with the same input.

By planting productive varieties with uniform germination, better drought and disease tolerance and minimal interior green colouration, we can achieve greater field production per hectare and better quality. Varieties like Navedo and Istanbul meet these requirements.

“We’re hopeful about the future of carrot farming. And its importance has grown in our region in the past several years. The sector still poses challenges, but we’re growing along with them and continuing to search for creative solutions.”

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BEJO CARROT MAGAZINE

“The choice of variety is determined partly by the industry.”

Stijn Vandelanotte

FUN FACTS DID Y O U K N O W. . .

T H I C K E R

H A I R

Carrots are good for your hair.

They make it thicker and help it to grow faster. Eat one a day, or drink

H E A L T H Y

some juice, to see a difference quickly.

S K I N

Carrots can give you better, healthier skin. Your body makes vitamin A from the beta-carotene, helping to protect your skin from sun-induced damage.

K E E P

T H E M

C O L D

At home, it’s best to store carrots in the fridge – but not near ripe fruit!

The ripe fruit gives off gases that cause

O R A N G E

V

them to taste bitter and age faster.

P U R P L E

For centuries, carrots were actually purple.

The familiar orange colour is the result of breeding.

C H I N A

I N

T H E

L E A D

The country that devotes the most acreage to carrot farming is China, followed by the USA.

N A N T E S Of all the carrots produced worldwide, 40% are Nantes types.

B E T A - C A R O T E N E

D O G

T R E A T

Carrots are great for puppies.

Carrots are so healthy, they can help to

Your dog will appreciate a

lower your risk of cancer. The beta-carotene

frozen carrot, especially if

they contain is not only good for your eyes

he or she is teething.

and immune system but also helps to prevent breast, stomach, bowel and prostate cancer.

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROOT CROPS IN SCANDINAVIA BEJO CONTACTED COLLEAGUES, DEALERS AND CUSTOMERS FOR A SNAPSHOT OF THE NORDIC MARKET.

Denmark

“Carrots are grown and supplied year-round in Denmark,” says Lis Jespersen, key account manager at our subsidiary Seedcom. “They’re harvested from under straw covering during winter and spring.”

Nantes and Amsterdamse Bak are the main types.

Coloured carrots are grown on a small scale, and snack carrot production accounts for a significant share of the market. “More than 50% of the carrots produced are exported to other countries, mainly Germany,” Jespersen says. “This is both the Nantes types and snack carrots. Most growers grow carrots on beds with 3 or 4 rows. Except on the Lammefjord on Zealand, where they sow carrots on ridges.

“In Jutland the standard variety is Nairobi,” Jespersen continues, “and this crop is straw-covered during winter, whereas on Zealand the main variety is Nerac, which is stored in cool storage during wintertime,” as in much of Western Europe.

Along with carrots, Denmark grows relatively large quantities of parsnip and rooted parsley. They’re sold separately and as part of a root crop mix with long red beetroot and orange and coloured carrots. Bejo/Elsoms’ most popular parsnip varieties are Pearl and Panorama. In rooted parsley, Eagle and Arat are the leading varieties. The first hybrid to reach the market, Arctica, is being tested extensively.

Organic production of root and tuber crops is extremely important in Denmark. Of all food sold in the country, more than 12% is organic.

“More than 50% of carrot production is organic,” Jespersen says, “and this percentage will increase in the coming years.” Robust growth is possible because organic carrot farmers swap fields with organic dairy farmers and also rotate between growing areas every year, giving harmful insects like carrot fly less opportunity to spread.

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ROOT CROP AREA IN DENMARK Carrot: Parsnip: Rooted parsley:

2,600 hectares 130 hectares 90 hectares

Finland

One notable trend in Finland is the rise of the snack carrot, says Antti Koski, an advisor with our dealer Helle Oy. “In the Laitila area they grow Mokum, and the Karotia Oy farm grows carrots and packs sweet snack types.”

Otherwise, she says, while production is growing at a healthy rate, overall “the business is really small.”

Carrots in Finland are harvested fresh from late June through October. Here, as in the Netherlands and Belgium, the October harvest is destined for cold storage. Storage carrots are packed and processed from November through May for both the fresh market and industrial use. From March through June, carrots are also imported on a small scale.

As for cultivation methods, Koski has noticed carrots increasingly being grown under insect nets. This is necessary to prevent carrot suckers causing major problems, including total crop failure. These jumping insects live in conifers and descend on carrot fields in spring. They

"More than 50% of carrot production in Denmark is organic, and this percentage will increase."

Lis Jespersen

w

cause immense damage in the form of misshapen carrots that stop growing after infestation and end up with zero market value.

Bejo’s most popular varieties in Finland are Napoli, Newhall, Nerac and Fontana. There’s not yet much activity on the organic front, Koski says.

“There are some trials for organic snack carrots. But overall, organic is only a few percent of the total market.”

ROOT CROP AREA IN FINLAND

Carrot: Parsnip: Rooted parsley:

1,830 hectares 150 hectares 5 hectares

Norway

We work with two dealers in Norway: Norgro, represented by growing specialist Arne Gillond, and L.O.G. Though harvest conditions in the country were far from optimal in 2019, the market for root and tuber crops wasn’t severely affected. “We expected bigger problems with stock,” says L.O.G.’s Gunnar Wearsted, “but we were able to provide the Norwegian market with carrots without much import this year.” Mokum, Nominator, Finley and Namdal are Bejo’s primary varieties in Norway.

“The development of the snack carrot market is quite stable,” Wearsted says. Sound new varieties like Aranka and Astralis are emerging as welcome additions in the segment. A certain amount of importing is necessary to ensure sufficient availability of carrots year-round. This involves cheaper produce of varying quality. The coronavirus pandemic has slightly affected the organic market, but Wearsted expects gentle growth in the coming years.

ROOT CROP AREA IN NORWAY Carrot: Parsnip: Rooted parsley:

1,650 hectares 45 hectares 60 hectares

Sweden

Lena Linde, owner of our dealer Semenco, says the southern region of Gotland is Sweden’s most important growing area for carrots, as well as parsnips and parsley root. “Nantes is absolutely the most important type, but there’s some interest in coloured carrots.” The vast majority of production is sold domestically, Linde says.

Towards the end of the season, in May and June, carrots are imported from Italy on a small scale.

Stored carrots, kept in conditioned storage as well as under straw, are still most prevalent.

The main Bejo varieties sold in Sweden are Nerac and Nacton (for cold storage), Nairobi and Newhall (for storage under straw), and Napoli and Nominator (for early and summer cultivation).

The area of organic sales currently isn’t seeing strong growth, Linde says. “Market share has been increasing in the last five years, but it’s now quite stabilized.”

ROOT CROP AREA IN SWEDEN Carrot suckers cause misshapen carrots that stop growing after infestation and end up worthless.

Carrot: Parsnip: Rooted parsley:

1,600 hectares 200 hectares 80 hectares

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CARROT SEED PRODUCTION A suitable production site is often a grower or cooperative whose range already contains seeds for crops such as grasses and grains.

That means it has the necessary sowing, planting, harvesting and cleaning machines.

We prefer to start with farms like these, provided they’re in areas that are free of wild carrots. Only then do we begin selecting organic growers and preparing to start organic production. Conventional seed production is labour-intensive because it requires extra weed and insect inspections, and organic cultivation is even more so, as scouting has to be done three times a week. Organic seed production must also meet additional requirements. For instance, growers must possess specific certificates relating to soil and crop rotation and verifying, if conventional pesticides have been used in their cleaning facilities in the past, they no longer are.

In exchange for the labour-intensive work and extra criteria, higher prices can be charged.

Bejo invests heavily to meet the various conditions to bring growers quality organic seeds. Our ratio is currently 5% organic to 95% conventional. In the future, the share of organic will increase, driven in part by government guidelines. France and Denmark already legislate the use of organic seeds. 

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U N I T E D S T A T E S

BEJO PRODUCES CARROT SEED AROUND THE WORLD. JOS DOODEMAN AND ANNE STOOP WORK AS PRODUCTION ADVISORS. THEY TRAVEL REGULARLY TO THE VARIOUS PRODUCTION SITES, SWAPPING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT DIFFERENT VARIETIES’ GENETIC AND PHYSICAL QUALITIES AND LIAISING BETWEEN THE FARMS AND BEJO’S HEAD OFFICE. JOS AND ANNE TELL US ABOUT THE REQUIREMENTS A SITE HAS TO MEET AND WHERE BEJO IS CURRENTLY PRODUCING CARROT SEEDS.

F R A N C E C H I N A

N E W Z E A L A N D

S O U T H A F R I C A

AUSTRALIA

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COMMITTED TO CARROTS? FORGET THE OLD ADVICE AND THINK CAREFULLY IN THE FUTURE, PROFITABLE CULTIVATION WILL DEMAND A NEW APPROACH. IT WON’T BE ABOUT FALLING BACK ON HABITS AND GENERAL ADVICE BUT ON NURTURING SOIL LIFE AND PLANTS’ NATURAL RESILIENCE. THE CONCLUSION OF THREE CROP EXPERTS: “GROWERS NEED TO LEARN TO GROW AGAIN.”

“The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is the changing climate.”

Sander Bernaerts

Carrots have always been an intensive crop. Under optimum conditions, growers can get 150 crates per hectare. High yields with good storability don’t happen automatically, though. It takes the right efforts in fertilization, disease and pest control, land preparation, and – now more than ever – irrigation.

This crop has the potential to deliver great returns, but cultivation costs are high. In addition, the market is demanding, and the use of certain chemicals and fertilizers has come under pressure.

So the question arises: what do growers need to do to make sure cultivation remains profitable in the future? Bejo asked three experts with different areas of specialization who provide practical growing advice daily. Sander Bernaerts is an advisor in organic vegetable cultivation and agriculture. Chris van Laarhoven is a soil and fertilization specialist in conventional and organic horticulture. And Pius Floris is a recognized soil biology expert and founder of the company Plant Health Cure, which produces soil fungi, soil bacteria and plant-based products to boost plant resilience.

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“As far as I’m concerned, we can throw out the old rules on fertilization.”

Chris van Laarhoven

The three experts agree that carrots are shifting from an open field crop to a horticultural one. With circumstances on the field changing, a one-sizefits-all approach to sowing, fertilization and harvesting no longer suffices.

Climate change

What’s the primary reason for the changes? “The biggest challenge in carrot cultivation, in my opinion, is the changing climate,” Bernaerts says.

“We’ve had three extremely dry springs and summers in a row. This year some growers watered more than 100 mm around planting just to make neat ridges and get the crops to come up. We’re also seeing droughts alternating with heavy rains, causing the ground to compact. If this continues, it will be extremely worrying.

“What farmers can do to compensate is take care of the soil. Growers need to do everything they can to stop soil degradation. Don’t go out on the land with a 6-cylinder tractor if you can manage with a 4-cylinder.

Include enough resting crops in your crop plan, and think about the effects of previous crops on the carrots. Use more solid manure to build up organic matter. Basically, everything needs to be right, especially with a crop like carrots.”

Growers like to see full, green plants. And they look good, but you can’t sell leaves. Plus they attract unwanted insects. I advise a minimal initial dosage, and after that you want just enough over the course of the season to keep the foliage green. Because you do need a bit of growth; it helps to prevent mildew, and the foliage needs to stay strong enough for lifting.”

Fertilizer

Natural defences

Van Laarhoven says, “I’ve been telling growers for 15 years that they use too much nitrogen. And they say, ‘Just to be sure. It can’t hurt.’ I always say, ‘The only thing you can be sure of is that you’re using too much.’

“The most important factor for storage quality is resistance in the crop,” Van Laarhoven says. >>

The key to profitable cultivation in the future, the three experts agree, is a willingness to let go of habits. For example, they point out that a lavish use of nitrogen fertilizer is counterproductive.

Plant nutrition is important not only for growth and yields but also for resistance to diseases and pests. Here, too, there are things growers can do.

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“Plants need to be able to produce their natural defences against fungi. To do that they need cobalt and silicon. And calcium is important for the uptake of these trace elements. It sounds simple, but it’s not, because interactions between nutrients are a factor. For example, calcium absorption is inhibited by an excess of potash. That’s why we recommend never applying potash with the initial dose. Plants only need potash between the 4- and 6-leaf stages. And you should only supplement if there’s a deficiency, using a low-chlorine potash fertilizer.” The commonly used agricultural fertilizer Kali 60 is disastrous for carrots, the experts say, because the chlorine harms soil life.

Healthy soil

Floris believes the reason farmers use so much fertilizer is that they lack confidence in the quality of the soil. “Synthetic fertilizer makes plants sick,” he says. “I compare it to fast food. It might taste good, but if all you eat is hamburgers, you’ll make yourself ill.

It’s a stubborn misconception that nutrient absorption comes down to availability. That’s the chemical approach. The reality is that plants absorb nutrients through interaction between their roots and fungi in the soil, and artificial fertilizers largely render them unable to do that. Fungicides cause damage too. They’re used in conventional farming to treat harmful fungi. They do what it says on the tin: kill fungi.

Unfortunately, that includes a lot of beneficial ones. Let’s face it, once soil organisms are gone from a field, they won’t come back on their own.”

That’s because the remaining organisms will rush to fill the space – and they usually aren’t the ones you want.

“We advocate giving the good fungi a helping hand,” Floris says. “Biostimulants prompt plants to fight the causes of disease and infestation themselves. And that means you’re improving soil quality and crop resilience.” The products his company, Plant Health Cure, sells include ones that support the colonization and growth of mycorrhizal root fungi.

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Resilience

These experienced experts agree: successful cultivation depends on healthy soil and crop resilience. ”Many growers have become too dependent on chemicals,” Floris says.

“The use of synthetic fertilizers and biocides has severely impaired soil quality for many growers. Repairing it is a long-term process. But once you start, you’ll see a difference after a year.”

Van Laarhoven adds, “As far as I’m concerned, we can throw out the old rules on fertilization. Thinking in terms of biology is better, but really we need to switch to systems thinking. It’s about activating processes in the soil without having to chuck in all sorts of stuff.”

Bernaerts says, “General fertilization advice is still valuable, but farmers need to think for themselves too. What do you need for a resilient crop in your situation? How will soil life be affected? And measurement is part of it. I’m surprised when growers spend hundreds of euros per hectare on fertilizer without taking a soil sample.“ Debates and discussions around cultivation still often focus on spreading and spraying, but especially in light of the changing climate, it’s becoming more important to talk about the soil and cultivation itself. It’s all about aspects like soil fertility, tillage and sowing techniques.

“The use of synthetic fertilizers and biocides has severely impaired soil quality for many growers.”

Pius Floris

SALTIER WATER CALLS FOR SPECIFIC MEASURES SALINITY IN SURFACE WATER AND GROUNDWATER IS INCREASING IN MANY REGIONS. THIS HAS A MAJOR IMPACT ON SENSITIVE CROPS LIKE CARROTS. GROWING ADVISOR SANDER BERNAERTS RECOMMENDS GROWERS REGULARLY MEASURE EC AND TAKE STEPS TO MAKE SOIL LESS DEPENDENT ON IRRIGATION.

An ongoing rainfall deficit and intensive irrigation are causing salinization of groundwater and surface water. We can see this in high and rising EC levels. In parts of the Dutch province of Flevoland, for example, the water has become unfit for irrigation, says the independent growing advisor Sander Bernaerts. “For a crop like carrots the EC of the irrigation water can’t be above 1.0.” The same is true for seed-grown onions, lettuce, clover, peas and beans. Other crops are sensitive too. For red beetroot and spinach, the threshold is about 2.0; for onion sets, it’s 2.5. Potatoes, celery root, cabbage and grains have a higher tolerance.

The EC of the water isn’t a problem in itself; the issue is its effects on the root zone. “After irrigation with salty water, the soil EC shoots up,” Bernaerts says. “I’ve seen examples of onions being irrigated at EC of 1.6, which caused the soil EC to rise to 1,200mS. In onions and carrots I’ve measured soil EC above 1,500mS. For sensitive crops like these, 700mS is the upper limit.”

Water and nutrient absorption

Bernaerts advises growers to regularly measure the EC of the water and soil. Variation between fields, water channels and sources is significant, and values often go up as the season goes on. “An EC meter is a small investment that can be very valuable,” he says. “The water quality often seems fine in early spring, but intensive irrigation can sometimes cause

“For a crop like carrots the EC of the irrigation water can’t be above 1.0..”

it to get saltier by the week.” High soil salinity values Sander Bernaerts threaten yields and quality. Salt impedes the roots’ uptake of water and essential minerals. In many cases, the damage is greater than the grower realizes. Often, the crop will come up but the seedlings will soon dry out. Or the plant will appear to take root but grow slowly.

Soil retention

What’s a grower to do? First of all, dose fertilizers carefully. All of them will raise the EC of the soil. Bernaerts also advocates using cultivation techniques that help the soil to better retain the water that’s present. This will reduce plants’ dependence on irrigation. In general, this means paying more attention to soil structure.

For carrots specifically, in heavy soil, he advises intensive use of an over-the-top rotary tiller to create a fine seed bed. Timing can also make a big difference. For example, starting soil preparation early means spring showers could fall on the ridges and aid the germinating plants.

Finally, Bernaerts also advises staying attentive to seeding conditions. It can pay off to seize an early opportunity, or to wait a bit longer.

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ORGANIC OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND IN GERMAN MARKET

THE MARKET FOR ORGANIC VEGETABLES IS BOOMING IN GERMANY. CONSUMERS THERE SPENT 22% MORE ON THEM IN 2019 THAN IN THE PREVIOUS YEAR. TODAY MORE THAN 8% OF VEGETABLES SOLD IN THE COUNTRY ARE ORGANIC. CARROTS HAVE BY FAR THE LARGEST MARKET SHARE IN THE SEGMENT, REPRESENT NEARLY 30% OF SALES. THOUGH SEVERE DROUGHT LED TO A LEAN YEAR FOR CARROTS IN 2018, SALES BOUNCED BACK BY 12% IN 2019.

An import country

Although Germany is well suited to agriculture thanks to its large area and low population density, when it comes to vegetables it’s long been an import country. With the strong focus on industry, such as car manufacturing, vegetable cultivation has developed more slowly.

But things are changing.

We talked to Pieter Gabriëls, the director of Bejo Germany. “German organic growers have made great strides in terms of produce quality and yields,” he told us. “Since 2013, domestic organic carrot production has grown by 26%, to more than 53,000 tonnes in 2019. But total demand is still about 20% to 30% above that. At 42%, the share of organic carrot consumption accounted for by imports is still substantial. The greatest import volumes by far come from the Netherlands. More than half of Dutch organic carrots are sold on the German market. Organic carrots are imported from Israel and Spain specifically to compensate for the shortfall at the end of the winter season.”

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Increased area

After a period of stabilization, the acreage devoted to organic carrot cultivation increased by 9% in 2019, to 2,377 hectares. That’s about 17% of all land devoted to organic vegetables in Germany. The carrots are grown for use as snack, tray, winter and bunch carrots. They’re grown in the same areas as conventional produce, although organic cultivation is difficult in intensively farmed areas. In southwestern Germany, for example, combining the two increases disease pressure.

Bejo varieties • Storage: Norway and Nacton (organic seed), Nerac (conventional NCT seed, can be used for organic) • Early: Napoli (organic seed) • Taste: Mokum as snack carrots (NCT seed), Miami (organic seed)

"More than half of Dutch organic carrots are sold on the German market."

Pieter Gabriels

Regional produce

“The market sets high quality standards for organic carrots, and it strongly prefers regional German produce,” Gabriëls says. “This preference stems from a desire for clarity around the origins of the product, partly because of food scandals. This is even more true for organic vegetables than for conventional ones. So in fact ‘regional’ stands for transparency around the origins of the product, which is a demand non-regional growers can also fulfil.”

Sales

Organic carrots are well represented in the various sales channels.

Discount supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi still dominate the market, however. Organic carrots are almost a given for German discounters; they’re now the only kind some stores offer. They bring several benefits: they have a positive effect on the image of a store, are attractive to a broad public and can be sold at relatively high prices.

Pricing

Because of their greater production and certification costs, organic carrots are priced an average of 50% to 60% higher than their conventional counterparts. While German consumers don’t generally like to spend a lot on food, they make an exception for organic. As long as organic vegetables meet the criteria of high quality and regional (read: clear) origins, consumers are willing to pay relatively high prices for them. >>

Sales (x 1,000 tonnes) 70

Domestic German production

60 50

Total imports

40 30

Dutch imports

20 10

Sales (x 1,000 to

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

AMI 2020/OL-BI-238 | AMI-informiert.de Source: AMI

binnenlandse aanvoer 504

642

527 BEJO CARROT MAGAZINE

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Cultivated area and harvest volume at record highs

Organic vegetable cultivation in Germany

Cultivated area (in ha) and harvest volume (x 1,000 tonnes) for organic carrots in Germany

Open-field vegetable cultivation areas (in ha) and organic share (%) of totals in Germany, 2019

Cultivated area

Harvest volume

© AMI 2020/OL-117 | AMI-informiert.de

Source: Destatis

Sources: Destatis

Organic vegetable cultivation in Europe

Top 10 organic vegetables in Germany

Cultivated area in selected countries (in ha), 2018

Individual household demand (% of total volume), organic vegetables and all vegetables, 2019

Italy Spain France Germany Poland United Kingdom Austria Denmark Hungary Portugal Bulgaria Other countries

Organic vegetables = 100%

Organic vegetable cultivation in the EU-28 (x 1,000 ha)

Storability and the ability to deliver fresh produce earlier are key to enabling domestic organic carrot production to better span the winter season. Bejo has recently expanded its range of storage-friendly organic carrot seeds to include Norway and Nacton. Development of a new early organic type is underway. For now, Napoli is still grown from organic seed on a large scale.

Quality is important to German consumers, but so is price. Thus, convenience products still make up a relatively limited though growing share of the market. Flavour has also been steadily gaining in importance. The new trend is increased interest in the health effects of substances naturally occurring in vegetables.

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tomatoes cucumber tomatoes

Storability and the growing season

Market trends

All vegetables = 100%

carrots carrots cucumber

onions peppers courgettes asparagus squash ginger mushrooms

onions peppers iceberg lettuce asparagus mushrooms courgettes cauliflower

other

Sources: AMI, Eurostat, FiBL, nationale Statistiken © AMI 2020/OL-122 | AMI-informiert.de

30

© AMI 2020/OL-117 | AMI-informiert.de

© AMI 2020/OL-297 | AMI-informiert.de

other Source: AMI nach Gfk-Haushaltspanel

German forecast

Domestic production will continue to increase as a consequence of market demand (pull) and increasingly strict regulations around conventional cultivation (push). Land availability is limited; still, the conversion of farmland from conventional to organic cultivation is expected to accelerate.

Consumption is expected to expand in the coming years, as interest in fresh vegetables grows and the introduction of products like snack carrots further boosts demand.

Still, Germany isn’t yet self-sufficient when it comes to organic carrots, and that won’t change in the near term. So, in short, opportunities abound in this area in the German market.

From left: Joost Litjens and Sam van Geffen

ARENOSA FARM:

EXCELLING WITH UMBELLIFERS A DECADE AGO, ARENOSA GREW 1 HECTARE OF ORGANIC PARSNIPS. LAST YEAR, IT WAS MORE THAN 100. DEMAND FOR PARSNIPS HAS GROWN RAPIDLY OVER THE PAST DECADE. AND JAN AND SAM VAN GEFFEN’S FARM IN LELYSTAD, THE NETHERLANDS, HAS GROWN WITH IT.

Arenosa, the Van Geffen’s farm, sits on a unique piece of Dutch land. In the mid-1980s, the city of Lelystad was held in receivership by the Dutch state. There was a 300-hectare area that was intended for industrial use but didn’t find a buyer. The local authorities thought large-scale organic cultivation would be a good use. So the land was repurposed, and in the mid-1980s the first organic farmers moved in. It became more or less the cradle of organic growing in the Netherlands.

Jan van Geffen was one of the farmers who settled there. Born in the southern Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, he had no >>

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farming background. But at age 23, when he heard about an organic agricultural school from a friend, his interest was piqued, and he went back to the classroom. Just before graduation, he was offered an opportunity to farm 3 hectares of land in the central Dutch town of Lunteren. Organically, of course. In 1988 he exchanged that land for 10 hectares of new sandy clay soil in Lelystad. His life as a “proper” farmer had begun.

Rediscovery

Today, Jan and his son Sam grow crops on 90 hectares. The farm’s growth has more or less kept pace with the increasing popularity of forgotten – or, rather, rediscovered – vegetables. Parsnips, which already had an organic image, are more popular than ever. And rooted parsley, Jerusalem artichokes, salsify, burdock and leeks – which Arenosa also grows, along with clover and sweetcorn – are claiming more space on the produce shelves. Leeks, grown for industry and the fresh market, are becoming an increasingly important product too.

Sam has followed in his father’s footsteps in a way. He didn’t set out to grow vegetables either; he saw more prospects in the hospitality industry.

But in the mid-2000s he realized organic was fast becoming big business.

Getting in on the ground floor was tempting. So in 2008 he joined his father on the farm.

Priorities

One of Arenosa’s focal points is handling its own sales. “We grow what the market wants,” says Sam. “So it’s important to put plenty of energy into maintaining business contacts. That pays off. Demand for traditional, organic vegetables is growing. We’ve been working in this segment for

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so long that customers come to us, Dutch and foreign.” Domestically, the Van Geffen’s supply mainstream retailers and natural food shops as well as industry, which makes good use of the larger vegetables. Parsnips face a disadvantage because they resemble carrots, the average consumer expects them to look similar and be of a uniform size. Otherwise, Arenosa’s produce mainly ends up in Germany, Belgium, France, Scandinavia and the Baltic states.

From left: Jan, Sam and Koen van Geffen

Another feature of Arenosa is that it has its own processing department.

“We want to maximize our products’ value,” Sam says. “So we do our own washing, packing and marketing, and we also do it for third parties. This gives us another advantage: by staying in close contact with the market, we get information about new developments firsthand. That helps us put together our crop plan.”

Head-shaking

"We want to maximize our products’ value, so we do our own washing, packing and marketing."

Sam van Geffen

Growth was never Jan van Geffen’s goal. It just happened, more or less, because demand for “forgotten” vegetables increased and he understood the business. And growth still isn’t what drives him. Sam feels similarly, though he does have plans for the future. “We’re going to specialize more in certain crops. And I also see a lot of potential in rooted parsley, which arguably tastes even better than parsnips. The issue is that the varieties aren’t yet consistent enough, although the first results with new hybrid varieties have absolutely been good.”

Sam says he’s never for a moment regretted leaving the hospitality business for organic farming. His brother Koen has also said farewell to the insurance industry, where he used to work, and switched to farming.

And Jan? He sometimes thinks back on his time in Lunteren with a smile.

“We had maybe 40 different crops. With a little old ruined building for a shed. And loads of volunteers and interns helping us to keep the place running. People would walk by shaking their heads.” Do they still do that?

He laughs. “No, not any more.”

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STRAIGHT FROM THE POLDER TO EASTERN EUROPE

EVERY DAY, TRUCKLOADS OF UMBELLIFERS BEARING THE SUMMUM LABEL HEAD TO EASTERN EUROPE. MOST OF THE VEGETABLES IN THE ORDINARY SEGMENT ARE GROWN IN NORTH-HOLLAND’S WIERINGERMEER POLDER BY PATRICK VAN BENSCHOP.

His father was a construction worker who, in the 1990s, bought a hectare of farmland. Alongside his job as a builder, he thought growing cabbages would be a nice hobby. At the time he couldn’t have imagined that his son, who like him never formally studied agriculture, would grow more than 200 hectares of vegetables 30 years later.

Yet that’s what happened. Patrick van Benschop grows cabbage and celeriac on about 60 per cent of his land. On the other 40 per cent he grows carrots (orange, yellow and purple), parsnips and rooted parsley. He says: “I never grow on spec. I always go by what the market demands. That’s a way of working that suits me.”

He farms in close collaboration with processing company Bruin Vegetables and trading and transport firm A.N. Boekel B.V. Their partnership led them to form a company together: White Gold Farm, which markets vegetables under the name Summum.

The biggest advantage of this arrangement is that it lets them respond quickly to the Eastern European market. The company’s trucks depart daily for Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, among others.

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Highly mechanized

Van Benschop has mechanized his farm in Waarland, North-Holland, to a high degree.

Sowing carrots is the only work that he outsources; his own people and machinery take care of the rest. “Labour is relatively expensive in this country. We also see Eastern European countries growing more and more of its own produce. So we will have to find our own way to distinguish ourselves in the market. I focus on market demand through the orders we receive at White Gold Farm. We can get a lot of work done with a relatively small crew. When we’re harvesting cabbage I bring in more people via an employment agency. We do the rest ourselves.”

Perspectives

Van Benschop grows cabbage in Waarland and carrots and celeriac in the Wieringermeer polder, about half an hour’s drive away.

From the field, the produce goes directly to Bruin Vegetables and from there is sent straight to the market. To guarantee high volume and ensure crop rotation, Van Benschop constantly trades land. He grows his own Japanese oats but prefers to leave potato growing to others.

Focus: that’s his strength.

"Once harvested, our produce has to get into the shops as fast as possible. Suitable varieties are Bangor, Blanes, Mello Yello and Deep Purple."

Patrick van Benschop

He does see that volume is becoming a problem in the area where he farms. “The soil here has not been virgin for a long time. We don’t achieve the kind of volume in carrots that you can get in the newer polders, like the Noordoostpolder.

That’s one reason we’re not in the storage segment. Once harvested, our produce has to be delivered to stores as soon as possible. Varieties suitable for fast distribution are Bangor and Blanes in the early carrots and Mello Yello and Deep Purple for coloured carrots. In rooted parsley we grow Arat, Eagle and Arctica.”

The soil is also the reason that he expects to put more emphasis on celeriac than carrots in the future. “I see opportunities in cabbage, too, including for storage, by the way. Right now we’re working on developing a harvester, so that we can cut the early cabbages automatically and will be less dependent on the availability of seasonal workers. I also think we will start growing more rooted parsley. That’s been a difficult crop for us. It’s hard to say why it does well one year and poorly the next. But I’m confident that we can work with the plant breeders to get a handle on it.”

Moving forward with confidence

Van Benschop expects to earn the Planet Proof label for his business in 2021. Switching to organic growing is not an option for him: It’s not his style. “I want my crops to have a slightly higher yield every time, year over year. That’s my aim. I do it by using foliar fertilization. The big question is whether the fertilizers that are currently permitted will remain on the market.

If not, then it will be a challenge. But other than that I’m confident about the future. As long as there’s demand—and I don’t doubt that the market will always need The Netherlands to fill in the gaps—we will be able to deliver quickly with high quality produce.”

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INSECTS IN SEED PRODUCTION

INSECTS IN SEED PRODUCTION PART OF THE CHAIN OR POTENTIAL PESTS RESEARCHERS CLEIDE DIAS AND YOURI DRA AIJER ON ENTOMOLOGY AT BEJO

BEJO’S INTERNATIONAL SEED PRODUCTION RESEARCH TEAM IS CONSTANTLY LOOKING FOR WAYS TO IMPROVE SEED PRODUCTION AND MAINTAIN STABLE YIELD. YOURI DRAAIJER MANAGES THIS TEAM, IN WHICH ENTOMOLOGIST CLEIDE DIAS HAS AN IMPORTANT ROLE. SHE STUDIES THE BIOLOGY OF INSECTS, THEIR BEHAVIOUR, AND THEIR INTERACTION WITH THE ENVIRONMENT AND WITH OTHER ORGANISMS. FOR CARROT GROWING, HER WORK IS ESSENTIAL. THAT’S BECAUSE, EVEN MORE THAN MOST OTHER CROPS, CARROT SEED YIELD AND QUALITY DEPEND ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF INSECTS.

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of insects to seed production.

Their role as pollinators makes them an essential part of plants’ reproductive cycle. On the other hand, herbivorous insects can also do great damage to the seed crop. Almost all the vegetable crops that Bejo produces are affected to some extent by insects. According to Draaijer, Bejo’s carrot seed operation is particularly sensitive to insect behaviour, for a simple reason: “In terms of production area, carrot is one of Bejo’s larger crops. Because carrots are grown over large areas in a number of different countries, the yield is more variable, less predictable. A good year can be very good, but a bad year is a disaster. ”

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Insects as pollinators

What makes insects so important in seed production? “A plant can only develop seed when pollen, produced by the flower’s male reproductive organ, comes into contact with the pistil, the female organ,” Dias explains.

“Insects make this happen by carrying the pollen from one flower to another as they forage for food. Bejo currently uses honey bees for this.

They are good pollinators and they’re relatively easy to control, so they are widely used in seed production. ” Bejo is satisfied with its bees. But when Dias started working at Bejo in 2017, one of her assignments was to look for alternative pollinators. She says there are several reasons why Bejo is interested in other pollinating insects. “Different kinds of pollinators in a field increase the chance of good pollination.

Alternative pollinators can spread pollen in diverse weather conditions. And it would make us less dependent on one type of pollinator.

But before we start using other insects, we first have to understand how to control them.”

Bejo participates in several research projects around the world that study the behaviour of

"A good year can be great, a bad year a disaster.”

Youri Draaijer

alternative pollinators. “Researchers look at their life cycle, for example, and their efficiency in pollinating our crops,” says Dias. “They can then explore how best to manage these insects in and around our fields.”

This information can ultimately be rolled out to other Bejo production locations.

Although insects are important as pollinators, the first priority of entomology is traditionally to study insects that damage crops.

“Heteroptera are a major problem, for example,” Draaijer says.

“Damage caused by these plant bugs is an especially big problem for carrot seed,” Dias adds. “The damage has a large impact on both the yield and the quality of the seed. This loss of quality is difficult or impossible to make up for in later stages of our process.”

To control these pests, cultivation-focused and organic methods can be used in both organic and conventional farming, from modifying the environment to introducing the bugs’ natural enemies. Bejo is currently studying the use in open field cultivation of ‘banker plants’, plants that provide food and shelter for the natural enemies of harmful insects.

In combination with trap crops (which are more attractive to insect pests than the actual crops), this should prevent migratory bugs from entering the field. “We are looking into a combination of methods that works to reduce bug populations and thereby minimize damage to seed yield and quality,” says Dias.

Dias believes that insects deserve more attention for their central role in the seed production process. Two years ago, the International Seed

Production Research team launched its entomological programme. Since then, its researchers have worked hard to learn more about insects—and to increase the efficiency and quality of seed production. “We have made great strides,” Dias confirms. “But in the future, I hope that we will continue to develop in all areas. Our goal is to find alternative pollinators that we can use at multiple Bejo locations. And we want to gain even more insight into how we can control pests. We look forward to sharing all the knowledge we’ve gained with our colleagues and partners.”

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HYBRID VEGETABLE VARIETIES

THE BEST OF TWO WORLDS IN ONE VARIETY F1 IS SHORT FOR ‘FILIAL 1’, WHICH IS LATIN FOR HYBRID VARIETY, THE FIRST GENERATION DESCENDANT OF TWO BREEDING LINES. HOW DO BEJO’S PLANT BREEDERS CREATE A HYBRID VARIETY AND WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES?

FREE POLLINATION

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SEED IS THE RESULT OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION

Plants produce seed through sexual reproduction: The pollen from the male plant fertilizes the egg of the female plant, which then grows into a seed containing the embryo of a new plant. This new plant has genetic traits from both the male and female parent.

In the wild, the exchange of pollen between plants of the same species happens at random. The plants’ pollen is spread by the wind or insects.

This unregulated scattering of pollen is called ‘free pollination’ and results in an arbitrary distribution of genetic traits. Individual plants in a population will show considerable variation in traits such as vigour, strength, height, fertility (ability to produce seed), root development and stress tolerance.

SELECTION

PARENT LINES

PLANT BREEDING GOES BACK TO ANCIENT TIMES

Humans have long taken advantage of the variation within wild plant species to select plants that provide more food, fibre or nutrients, for example, or that are easier to preserve. By saving the seeds of plants that produce more seeds, have more flavour and give better results, humans have been developing more productive varieties for thousands of years.

It does take a long time to breed a better variety, especially when you are working to create plants and crops that combine a range of useful properties. The random distribution of genetic traits makes it a challenge to find individual plants that contain the ideal combination, such as large seeds and disease resistance and storability and good taste. You have to be very lucky and work with a large number of plants to find that one individual plant that has (almost) everything.

CREATING A HYBRID VARIETY

Plant breeders have learned a lot since Gregor Mendel first figured out the basics of genetics from growing pea plants in his monastery garden.

Using the technique known as hybridization, breeders now know how to bring desirable qualities together in a single plant. Here’s how it works: Suppose you have a population of carrot plants, all reproducing through free pollination. Some of them have beautiful roots but are susceptible to leaf diseases. That means that in a wet season, those plants are going to do poorly. The population also includes plants that seem to be more resistant to leaf diseases, but their root system isn’t so impressive.

No matter how hard you look, you will not find plants that produce good quality roots and have strong resistance to leaf diseases. Now, select the plants that have a strong root system and separate them from the rest.

Make an inbred population of these plants, and for a number of years always select the plants that produce the best roots and throw away the others. In the end you will have a population in which most plants are producing good roots – that is, carrots.

Now you do the same for plants that seem to have strong resistance to leaf disease.

By selecting the healthiest plants every time, you ultimately create a line of plants with robust, healthy leaves, even under wet conditions.

The plant population with a good root system forms what is called a breeding line. The population with healthy leaves is another breeding line. Now you let plants from these two lines grow and flower in the same field, where they can exchange pollen and make seed.

These seeds grow into hybrid plants that have both a good root system and healthy leaves.

In hybridization, the characteristics of the parent populations, or breeding lines, are combined into a new hybrid population, or a hybrid variety.

ADVANTAGES OF HYBRID VARIETIES

The strong selection and inbreeding of the parent lines makes both of these lines more uniform. When you combine two strongly uniform breeding lines, you create hybrids that are also quite uniform. Uniformity ensures that the crop will tend to grow predictably and ripen at the same time. This has advantages for both crop treatment and harvesting.

Also, the combination of selected genetic traits in a hybrid variety often leads to greater strength, because the hybrid has more vigour than the two parent lines combined. The result is plants that grow better and provide a better yield. >>

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Nicoletta Bertolin, junior breeder, Bejo Noord-Scharwoude

MAINTAINING HYBRID TRAITS

Gregor Mendel showed that the combination of traits in hybrid plants is lost when these plants are crossed with each other. We call this process segregation. This is the result of the random rearrangement of genetic material through sexual reproduction. To keep producing the same hybrid variety, you must maintain the two parent lines. That way, each time you cross these two parent lines, you can recreate the hybrid variety with the desired traits of both parents.

WHAT ABOUT GROWING SEEDS FOR ONE’S OWN USE?

Sometimes we hear complaints about hybridization, such as that growers can’t keep the seeds their plants produce but have to buy seeds of the hybrid variety each year from the vegetable seed company. That is definitely true.

But it’s not true that only commercial seed companies can produce hybrids. Hobbyists, gardeners and commercial growers can apply the same principles to develop their own hybrid varieties. It is a lot of work, however. It takes time and requires a well-organized team to maintain breeding lines, develop hybrid varieties and produce clean and healthy seed.

Gardeners and growers who rely on the benefits of strong, productive hybrid varieties agree that this annual purchase is well worth the money.

HYBRIDS ARE NATURAL

Hybridization makes use of the genetic variation that already exists in natural populations.

By means of selection, plant breeders create different breeding lines with the characteristics

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we want to achieve. By crossing and coordinating different breeding lines, we can bring these traits together in different combinations and create a series of new hybrid varieties.

HYBRIDS ARE NOT GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GMO)

Plant breeders use a number of techniques to facilitate the development of inbred parent lines and hybrid varieties. These include hand pollination (rather than relying on the wind or insects) as well as naturally occurring mechanisms such as self-incompatibility or male sterility. Either way, hybridization works with the genetic material of just one species of plant.

It does not involve techniques where the genome of the species is altered through the introduction of DNA from non-crossable species.

Hybrids are not clones. A hybrid population consists of a group of individual plants that share certain important characteristics, but still have significant genetic variation between them. After all, the parent lines are not completely identical, only strongly selected (typically for about six or seven generations). Clones are plants that are grown using asexual reproduction (such as potatoes, garlic, fruit trees, grapevines, and so on), while hybrids are the product of sexual reproduction.

PLANT BREEDING NEVER STOPS

Modern plant breeding is supported by a growing body of knowledge about the plant genome. We now have laboratory equipment that allows us to quickly see the genetic content of a specimen, so that we can determine at an early stage of growth which plants have the traits we are interested in.

Incidentally, this is the same equipment that is used to study viruses and develop vaccines.

The rapid expansion of our knowledge of the plant genome and the availability of automatic analysis technology will surely contribute to the development of new varieties that can thrive in stressful environmental conditions, have greater nutritional value and a better structure, and produce a larger crop with less effort.

The thoughtful and carefully applied use of these technologies benefits us all.

‘THE QUALITY OF THE CARROTS DETERMINES THE CAPACITY OF THE PROCESSING LINE’ IN 2018 BREIDDE VAN WOERDEN IN 2018,UIT VAN WOERDEN FLEVO FLEVO MET EEN EIGEN EXPANDED ITS OPERATION, BIOWORTELSPOELERIJ MET ADDING AN ORGANIC CARROT RINSINGNIEUWE PLANT HYDROKOELER. HET BRACHT AND HYDROCOOLER. THAT WAS KANSEN MET ZICH MEE. ‘MAAR’,GOOD ZEGT FOR BUSINESS, SAYS STEFAN VAN STEFAN VAN WOERDEN MET INTUSSEN WOERDEN. BUT WITH A FEWOP YEARS EEN PAAR JAAR ERVARING ZAK, OF HE NOW KNOWS: ‘JE EXPERIENCE DOET DIT ER NIET ZOMAAR “YOU DON’TBIJ.’ JUST DO THIS AS A EVENTJES SIDELINE.”

Stefan’s parents took over the family farm in 1988 from his grandparents, who started the business when they moved to the Flevopolder in the early 1960s. In 1994, the Van Woerdens made the switch to organic growing. They grew many different crops, but carrots didn’t become part of their operation until the beginning of this century. Carrots arrived together with Stefan himself, who had just finished school and started working in his parents’ company.

Anthoinet and Stefan van Woerden

After adding a shed for onsite storage, the Van Woerdens expanded their acreage of carrots.

The farm’s other crops were mainly onions and potatoes. It was a strong, healthy, specialized business when Stefan and his partner Anthoinet took the reins from his parents in 2017. The third generation, full of fresh ideas and ambitions, >>

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wanted to add their own touch to the company.

Within a year they had built a modern rinsing plant and bought two neighbouring farms, partly to have enough room for processing, partly to keep up with crop rotation.

“The thing is,” Van Woerden says, looking back, “I realized that a fairly large amount of ‘dirty product’ was being sent abroad—a lot of carrots with soil. You’re transporting unnecessary kilos, which to me doesn’t fit with the whole idea of working organically. Besides, our carrots were being shipped all over Europe at that point, and we saw that the demand for ‘clean’ carrots was growing. That was ultimately what made us decide to set up a processing line.

You should see our carrots now! At 5 in the morning a carrot comes off the land. At 6 it is washed, polished, cooled and sorted and by 7 o’clock it goes into the cooling cell at 3 degrees Celsius. Super fresh. It’s amazing to watch.”

Two lines

By 2018 the firm had two organic rinsing lines, one for carrots and one for table potatoes.

A shed was then built around the two lines, as it were, with its own conveyor belt to bring in the ‘dirty’ carrots, its own toilet block, lunchroom,

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“It’s not an easy job to get the lines up and running."

Stefan van Woerden

lines of operation and so on. “It was no easy job to get the plant up and running. Take the certifications alone. We are certified for BRC Food in Grade AA. In our experience, it takes half a full-time equivalent (FTE) just to organize that certification. ” Even now, the time commitment is still a large one. The line must be completely cleaned once a day, even if only a few crates have been run.

The machinery is all stainless steel in accordance with food safety requirements, which makes it hygienic to use, but also more expensive to maintain.

‘Quality determines capacity’

Despite the front-end investments, Stefan and Anthoinet have no regrets about the expansion. The rinsing has been going well since day one, not only for Van Woerden Flevo but for their fellow growers, who soon started coming to them to use their facilities. As a result, one employee was soon able to work full-time on the rinsing line.

growing. That makes us very flexible. Our buyers like that, and so do our fellow growers who have their produce rinsed here.”

Further developments

Van Woerden Flevo has grown Bejo varieties from the start. They begin the year with the early varieties, then switch to Nairobi and Nerac.

“The second is an old-fashioned carrot, but it’s so consistent that it’s still a favourite. I do expect that Bejo, with all its expertise in organic growing, will keep developing new varieties, especially in the early segment and in storage.

And that’s how it should be. The price of land is going up, so here too we have to raise the bar.

Yield and quality must be higher in order to compensate for the rising cost of farming.”

The Van Woerdens left some growing room when they built the rinsing line.

“We still have space for extra capacity. But we’re watching and waiting. The market keeps making higher demands on quality. It sets a high bar – a little too high, I sometimes think. It shouldn’t really matter how many kilos go into a big bag or a container. Yet there is more loss with the second. That’s a shame, absolutely. Still, you have to take that into account. That’s why the question of quality sets a limit on the capacity of the processing line.”

Incidentally, not all carrots go through the rinser. “If a customer wants carrots straight from the field, we can supply that, no problem. We’re not here to keep the rinsing line running at full capacity: Our first focus is on

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TASTES DIFFER!

A QUESTION OF TASTE TASTE IS ONE OF THE CORNERSTONES OF BEJO’S WORK. THERE’S NOTHING MORE LIKELY TO TEMPT CONSUMERS THAN EXCELLENT FLAVOUR. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE FOR SNACK VEGETABLES, WHICH ARE RAPIDLY GAINING IN POPULARITY. FLAVOUR MATTERS IN ALL ITS ASPECTS, WHETHER IT’S SWEETNESS, JUICINESS, OR A CRISP BITE.

For over five years, Bejo has been investing specifically in flavour research, to find the most delicious varieties of each crop. When we say flavour, we mean a combination of what you see (colour), smell (aromas), and taste (flavour, texture). We measure flavour in three ways: sensory evaluation (with statistical analysis), a component analysis and / or a consumer panel. We then share this information with our breeding programmes, so our breeders can develop even tastier varieties for the future.

To research flavour in carrots, Bejo works with an expert panel from Wageningen University. The panel originally identified 14 characteristics, which were brought together in a flavour model. Our breeders then used this model to develop a well-balanced range of snack carrots, which we now promote under the name Cool Carrot Candy. Bejo also does taste testing in other crops. For the past two years we have been running an expert study on flavour in beetroot, with the first results expected in 2021. In addition to our range of snack carrots, which consists largely of Amsterdamse Bak varieties, we also do taste testing in our Imperator line. Carrots of this type are mainly used in the cut-and-peel industry, which is a large segment in the United States. It goes without saying that taste is important here, and that we aim for high flavour levels in the Imperator types.

"Taste is the sensation of what you see, smell and taste."

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Content matter is continuously measured both in Bejo’s labs and in collaboration with various institutes. These measurements give us an impression of each variety from our existing range and its particular taste. The genetics of a variety can influence the amount of fibre in carrots, for instance, or the bitterness of Brussels sprouts. We cannot yet predict flavour by measuring content matter, but we have identified a number of influences. Both genetics (the variety) and cultivation conditions (including weather, soil type, stress factors and fertilizers) help determine the taste of a vegetable. Our customers also constantly taste-test their produce. Our breeders and sales representatives in the field are always trying the newest varieties to compare them with each other and with the existing range.

It’s interesting to wonder what possibilities the future will bring. Can we breed for better flavour? Can we find the genes that most influence taste?

Only time will tell.

Taste is never the only quality people want in a vegetable. It can be a starting point for bulk products or a very specific demand in a niche market.

Along with breeders and growers, home cooks and chefs also influence the taste of vegetables by preparing them in all kinds of delicious ways.

Promoting taste is always a challenge. Taste is personal, hard to put into words, and its importance differs per application (snack packaging, cut into vegetable mix, bulk packaging, prepared product, and so on). Taste is definitely an important factor for returning customers. Bejo’s insight into flavour allows us to keep up with contemporary food and consumer trends. Consumers keep becoming better informed and increasingly choose vegetables that are healthy (to strengthen the immune system), sustainable, local and in season.

All this is part of their lifestyle. Eating more mindfully means paying more attention to food waste, healthy snacking, earthy flavours, colours, convenience and especially vegetables in a starring role. The consumer wants to eat the recommended amount of vegetables, 250 grams per day, but it must be part of a varied and delicious diet. On one hand, we see that consumers are curious about new developments, but on the other they still want traditional products that are known for their healthy properties and longer shelf life. What food better meets those needs than carrots? They’re versatile, colourful and suitable for any eating moment. In addition, carrots also work as an extra ingredient with many other fruits and vegetables, leading to many great flavour combinations.

Consumers aren’t always aware of the intrinsic flavour of a particular vegetable. Often they base their choices more on visual properties than taste, such as in vegetable selection packs. There are definitely opportunities to promote carrots here. Consumers typically don’t receive a lot of information about the characteristics of and differences between varieties. One way to change that would be to indicate which carrot varieties are suitable for which meals and preparation methods.

A more healthy and sustainable lifestyle can get some help from technology. For food companies, an online presence is especially important now that consumers are spending so much time on social media. They watch videos and connect with brands, including food brands. They cook more at home and are looking for inspiration. Connect with them!

In these times, when consumers are mindful of sustainability, transparency, packaging and the supply chain, new farm-to-table initiatives are emerging on various delivery platforms, including online shopping, a farm shop in a restaurant, and drive-through shopping to name a few. These initiatives mean direct delivery to and connection with the consumer. Online support is essential here.

Ultimately, the aim is to create a link between health and flavour.

After all, who doesn’t want to eat food that tastes great?

FLAVOUR MODEL • Distinguishes between taste, smell, and texture • Distinguishes between positive and negative • Highlights the positive characteristics With carrots we see: • Content matter doesn’t reflect flavour sensation • Taste is linked to variety • Ripeness and/or storage of the variety has an influence • Aromas have a strong influence on the overall impression of a variety • Size (plant density) matters – snack size is preferred Flavour preference is the only factor that is not completely objective. Not all scores are equally important. Aromas have a strong influence. Overall impression is of course very important.

Content matter: in American breeding line tests, fructose, glucose and sucrose were measured. There was some correlation with sweetness, but not consistently.

GENERAL IMPRESSION

CRISPINESS 70 60 50

LEFTOVER BITS

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MOKUM ADANA ASTRALIS ARANKA NERJA

FIRMNESS JUICINESS

30 20

UNAPPEALING FLAVOUR

SWEETNESS

10 0

SOIL AROMA

BITTERNESS

PRESENCE OF AROMAS

NUTTY AROMA TURPENTINE AROMA

CARROT AROMA

EVALUATION OF AROMAS

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Exploring nature never stops

IMPROVED COATING AND NEW COLOUR FOR ORGANIC SEED In 2018, Bejo introduced the new sustainable coating. From September 2020, both the organic seed coating and the non-chemically treated seed coating will transition to the new sustainable coating recipe. This new coating has been extensively tested in close collaboration with suppliers to achieve the correct results and to deliver the desired Bejo quality. The new coating is approved by the organic certification bodies.

The advantage of seed coating in general is that it ensures a smoother seed surface and less dust development from the seed, resulting in improved sowability. A coloured coating also makes the seed more visible in the soil.

NEW SUSTAINABLE COATING: Made of natural materials X Decomposes completely X Improved preservation of seed vitality X Significant drying time reduction X Less energy consumption, less environmental impact X

NEW COLOUR: Organic seed coating will become yellowish Non-chemically treated seed coating remains white X Visual distinction between organic and non-chemically treated seed X X

The new yellowish organic coating reacts slightly differently to different crops:

Onion

X

Lettuce

X

Carrot

X

Cabbage

X

Beet

X

Celery

X

The production of organic seeds with the new coating will start in September 2020. During the phaseout period, customers may receive organic seed with a white or yellowish coating until December 2022.

Sustainable cultivation with a high yield, exceptional product quality and – ultimately – healthy and tasty food; it all starts with the best organic seeds of the best varieties , RIGHT from the START.

If you have any questions, please contact your Bejo specialist.