Syngenta vegetable varieties attract the world to Andijk
The Syngenta Week 39 vegetable variety Open Days attracted visitors from across the world to the Andijk breeding station near Enkhuizen.
Week 39 Syngenta trial plots
For one week every October, this area of the North West Netherlands becomes the centre of the worldwide vegetable industry.
Despite the challenging season, the demonstration plots provided growers, agronomists and Syngenta Vegetable Teams from all countries in the region with a chance to see the latest varieties, as well as comparing planting dates and crop density for many varieties. It was also a chance to see the results of Integrated Crop Solutions in practice – utilising the specific attributes of the varieties and targeted crop protection programmes to achieve the optimum yields and crop quality.
Syngenta Crop Specialists James Gray, Nigel Kingston and George Hallam were among the Vegetable Team from the UK who were on hand to showcase the latest varieties and developments. Mr Gray reported strong interest in the TopRes branded brassicas featuring club root resistance, including white cabbages such as Kilaton and Kilazol and a number of cauliflower varieties.
Ken Berry
The event also provided an opportunity for growers around the world to compare industries and best practice. Growers Express from California’s Salinas Valley were in the Netherlands looking for inspiration for their Brussels sprouts programme, which is taking off at a level that UK producers can only dream of.
Thanks to eye-catching marketing initiatives, including the well-known Green Giant Brand, the company produces some 250,000 lbs (115,000 kg) of sprouts a week, increasing to over half a million pounds (230 tonnes) for the holiday period. To meet this demand, it is growing over 2800 hectares of sprouts between the Salinas Valley in the north and the Baja California peninsula in Mexico in the south.
Syngenta US vegetable specialist, Ken Berry, who had also travelled across the Atlantic with the party, explained that much of the success of the crop is due to new European-developed varieties without the traditional bitter taste associated with the vegetable. “Varieties such as Maximus and Crispus have really proved their worth in the United States. The new mid-season variety, Cryptus, is also seen as having an important role to play in developing a year-round programme,” he added. Both Crispus and Cryptus have the Syngenta clubroot resistance trait, which has also been widely acclaimed in the UK.