Swedish retailers shy away from unusual tomato varieties

According to Raimo Einosson from Warberg Tomat, they were one of the first producers in Sweden to start cultivating smaller specialty tomatoes for snacking.



The grower currently offers 33 tomato varieties, including some less common varieties which are yellow, brown, pink or striped, along with the more traditional red.

"The snack varieties sell very well, however it hasn't been so straight- forward getting our more original varieties out to retailers. The tomatoes sell really well in our own store, but retailers tend to want to stick with the same varieties that they have been selling for years. However, this has been changing over the last 8 years. We send mixed boxes with various colours to the supermarkets, a type of pick and mix, enabling customers to pick out the tomatoes they like." shared Einosson.



"The best selling tomato in our company store is the Delisioso, called Svea Kvist in Sweden. The tomato was chosen by a panel of Swedish chefs and cooks in 2014 as the best tasting tomato."



The company also grows snack cucumbers, due to their popularity with consumers, who prefer the flavour to the traditional sizes. Einosson said that many find them to perfect snacking vegetable because of the ease of taking them with you where ever you go, with no further preparation necessary.

Half of Warberg Tomat's production is sold in their own shop and the other half to regional grocery stores.



"We want to grow for our local market, eliminating the use of chemical pesticides whenever possible. We use biological control, and have been doing so for the last 30 years, to keep low-level pests and fungal attacks at bay, buying animals and various mites weekly which eat pests." said Einosson.

For more information:
Raimo Einosson
Warberg Tomat
Tel: +070–260 05 28
Email: info@warbergtomat.se
warbergtomat.se

Publication date: 5/3/2017
Author: Heather Wicks
Copyright: www.freshplaza.com

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