De Lier, The Netherlands
November 14, 2024
A “flavour bomb” – that’s how organic grower Koen Van Hauteghem describes the plum tomato Vivolia RZ. In Belgium, this Rijk Zwaan truss tomato is sold exclusively by the BelOrta auction house under the name Ruby Red. Koen won an award with the organic version, and retail customer Colruyt Group is so enthusiastic that production is being further scaled up.
Great incentive
“The BioVLAM award was a great incentive for us to continue along this path,” says the enthusiastic organic grower from Zwijndrecht, Belgium, who is the current ambassador for Belgium’s organic sector. Koen has been cultivating organic tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers under 2 hectares of glass since 2016.
Organic production gives more certainty
“Our company Vitaetom became too small to grow crops using traditional methods,” explains Koen. “Moving to organic was a big step, but it felt right. The smell of the soil took me back to my roots. As a boy, I remember spending time in the greenhouse where my father grew strawberries in soil. Additionally, organic production gives me more certainty.”
Good price agreements
That certainty for Vitaetom and other organic growers is a result of the good price agreements that auction house BelOrta reaches with retailers. “We really do grow to order for the customers,” states Koen. One day, Colruyt Group asked BelOrta whether Ruby Red could also be grown organically for the retailer’s Bio-Planet stores.
Amazing flavour
Koen was happy to rise to the challenge because he is a huge fan of Vivolia. “It has such an amazing flavour. I myself love eating it. As the name suggests, the tomato is ruby red on the inside. And each truss has attractive green parts that have a long shelf life. This is particularly important in the case of organic tomatoes, because they have a slower turnover rate in stores than non-organic options.”
Lower plant density
At that time, there were no cultivation guidelines for growing Vivolia organically, so Koen developed them himself. “In soil, we work with a slightly lower plant density than in a substrate. The irrigation strategy is also different, because we can’t water as precisely, of course. Things were tricky at the beginning, but we succeeded in fine-tuning the crop strategy throughout the season. Next year, we will have even better control over everything.”
Quadrupling production
Because the variety sold so well, Colruyt Group is keen to expand its order in 2025. “In conjunction with another organic grower, we will quadruple the production area for this tomato, taking it to 2,000m2. The customer actually wants more, but we don’t have the necessary volume available. We’ll continue to scale up the organic cultivation to meet the demand.”
Successor with ToBRFV resistance
Koen and the other grower are making two more changes next season. For one, they will grow the new Rijk Zwaan variety Nimbola RZ (72-PL-0502), which in Belgium is likewise available exclusively in BelOrta’s Ruby Red range. This variety is the successor to Vivolia, with added Rugose DefenseTM. In other words, it has resistance to the Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV). “This is important to us because we definitely don’t want anything turning brown in our greenhouse,” he says. “Secondly, we will be putting the variety on a more vigorous rootstock.”
Organically grown Tatayoyo
Because Koen likes to try new things, next season he also intends to start growing the Mitayo RZ organic variety, which is part of Rijk Zwaan’s Tatayoyo brand. This orange pepper won the Fruit Logistica Innovation Award in 2023 for its unique flavour. “I tasted it when I visited Rijk Zwaan’s Retail Centre in Berlin together with BelOrta last year and it’s really delicious. I firmly believe in this unique pepper. A number of potential buyers have already expressed an interest. For the technical aspects, we’re in close contact with Rijk Zwaan.”
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