Hazera Innovates Hybrid Round Radish
Hazera is the worldwide market leader in round radish. It has reached this position by breeding this crop actively since several decades, focusing on innovation and a well chosen range of key traits. A short look at the latest innovations in this crop that becomes increasingly popular among consumers.
according to wim van der heijden, global product manager root & bulb crops at hazera, market leadership certainly didn’t come by coincidence: “since 1974 we’ve been breeding and selecting round radish varieties, systematically searching for the advantages that markets were demanding. in 1987 we made a breakthrough introducing high performance hybrid varieties with higher yields and uniformity. beside yield and uniformity, we always put much focus on reliability in all growing conditions.”
one of the main focus points today in variety breeding is disease resistance. disease in crops can have dramatic consequences for growers’ incomes. wim: “recently hazera succeeded to introduce high levels of resistance to fusarium and to white rust (albugo candida). especially the last one, introduced in our variety autella, is a real breakthrough, in line with hazera’s flow of innovations for the benefit of growers. downy mildew is another important resistance that we are bringing to higher levels now.”
hazera’s breeders work on needs expressed by growers, but also on those expressed by processors, distributors and supermarkets. wim: “bulbs should always have high internal quality, and be highly solid. internally they should be nicely and evenly white, and remain so after the product has been cut, for example for use in prepacked salads. consumers like to have them available year-round, so our breeding extended this spring crop to a real four seasons one. in general good shelf life, nice taste and a fresh appearance are very important and definitely within our breeding scope.”
another striking innovation is the introduction of a completely white round radish hybrid. wim: “the new white radish, that is also resistant to white rust, enables very nice red-white-green colour combinations on the supermarket shelves, so the product becomes even more attractive.”