“The current acreages dedicated to tomatoes in China are about 16 million mu, of which more than 9 million mu are for pink tomato, a main product that we breed. Currently, pink tomatoes in the north mainly face diseases where the whole plant becomes dead or where new leaves turn yellow. Against this background, the ideal varieties must be resistant to Ty and gray leaf spot,” Mr. Zhang Xiaosheng of Beijing Bioscow Seeds Co., Ltd. said.
Tomato breeding center
"Furthermore, in addition to outbreaks in major production areas such as Yunnan in southern China, spotted wilt has also begun to occur in Shandong, Liaoning, and Ningxia in the north, which will bring catastrophic losses to the production. However, in general, the progress in breeding made against spot wilt is still very limited. We have established red tomato varieties that are resistant to spotted wilt but their counterparts of pink tomatoes are still being tested and are in the semi-commercialized stage.”
Tomato breeding center
"We only handle breeding and seed production and mainly supply our products to large distributors in China and overseas, rather than being involved in retailing or supplying end products, but we have always attached great importance to the disease-resistant traits of tomatoes with good eating quality in our breeding process. In the latter half of this year, our Ty-resistant pink tomatoes, medium to small-sized tomatoes (160-180g), and varieties with good eating-quality and flavor will enter the semi-commercialized promotion stage."
“Currently, our pink tomatoes are mainly sold to large customers in China, and we are also developing the international market. We mainly market our Roma tomatoes to international distributors, but in this regard, we also stick to the principle of servicing large customers and working with one partner in each country or region (several countries). We mainly focus on the Chinese market and are only just beginning to sell overseas. Among our varieties, Roma has shown noticeable competitiveness."
Tomato breeding center
"Small local distributors are not very conscious of the disease, but where spotted wilt is an imminent problem in the area, large distributors (large distributors with their own brands) have a strong need to fight the disease. In addition, there are frequent occurrences of spotted wilt in China and many of the varieties resistant to this virus internationally developed three years ago can’t really handle the virus, so the market is in need of highly resistant varieties. This virus has just started, and I think that it will become a tricky problem for breeders and growers to tackle in the next five to ten years."
For more Information:
Contact: Zhang Xiaosheng
Company: Beijing Bipscow Seeds Co., Ltd.
Website: http://www.biosow.com/cn/
Tel.: +86 10 2172 2110/2172 2114
Fax: +86 10 2172 2114
Email: biosow@biosow.com