Israel
April 25, 2017
Israeli private investment house, AP Partners, has invested in Israel's Tomatech Ltd, an innovative high-quality hybrid tomato Seed Company, specializing in taste & flavor.
Founded in 2002 by Dr. Favi Vidavski (ex-Faculty of Agriculture at The Hebrew University) and Zion Cohen (an innovative hybrid seed producer), Tomatech has developed a proprietary portfolio of mini-cluster, cluster and specialty tomatoes, now sold in over twenty countries. From its establishment, Tomatech has aimed to bring back the flavor to tomatoes, without compromising productivity and quality traits such as color, shelf-life, firmness and shape. In recent years, Tomatech has succeeded in breaking the negative correlation between flavor, shelf-life and fruit size.
"The need for better taste in tomatoes has been very clear to me since the days when I was a young breeder at the Hebrew University" says Dr. Vidavski, Tomatech founder. With more than 30 years of tomato breeding experience, Vidavski - together with Tomatech's experienced breeding team – has targeted flavor and taste, "Our aim is to develop and introduce a new standard of tomato high-flavor fruit combined with high nutrition value for the benefit of our customers and consumers in US and in Europe".
Three years ago, Tomatech was joined by Ofer Ben Zvi, former marketing & sales VP of Zeraim Gedera, to lead the marketing and the commercial strategies of the Company. “The recent investment from AP Partners, a Private Equity House, will enable us to devote special efforts to implementing our Company's vision” says Ben Zvi. “The investment will allow the Company to strengthen our finger- print in key tomato markets, mainly Europe, USA and Canada. We aim to penetrate new markets, utilizing distinctive proprietary germplasm developed by our breeders in several locations, such as Spain, Turkey and Italy”.
Vidavski adds …. "We have managed to deliver specialty taste tomatoes due to a clear strategic understanding of the value and of what consumers demand. The in-house, highly professional production facility, run by Zion Cohen, contributes significantly to Company status”.
Recently, Tomatech closed a significant investment from A.P. Partners, an Israeli Private Equity house, focusing on distinctive Israeli Small-Medium-Enterprise Companies, those with a competitive edge and clear added-value to its customers. Hagai Stadler, A.P. Partners, says: "We strongly believe that the combination of the unique genetics, Tomatech strong team and A.P. Partners capabilities can make the growth aspiration of Tomatech an international success story in the Seeds Industry".
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