This week the Enza Zaden Winter Leafy Days are being held in El Albujon, Murcia in Spain. Amid demo fields with dozens of familiar and new varieties, Enza Zaden breeders and colleagues will bring visitors up to date on the latest developments in leafy crops. The event is dedicated to emphasize the company's 'power of leafy' and is giving answers to three current topics: disease and pest control, year-round production, and labor savings.
The Winter Leafy Days are an annual event for many who are involved in the variety selection for the cultivation and processing of leafy vegetables.
There will attendees from as far afield as New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, South America as well Europe.
One of the biggest issues growers face is a disease and limited products to use to combat it, this is the main focus at Enza Zaden.
"For all our partners in the supply chain, the earnings depend to a large extent on varieties' resilience to pests and diseases, the ability to set up year-round cultivation programs, and the opportunity to save on labor costs," says John Robert Johnson, Technical Sales Representative Leafy Crops at Enza Zaden UK.
"Fusarium, Bremia, and mildew resistance are our main focus in the leafy vegetable products such as Cos, Little Gem, Romain, Eazyleaf, and spinach," explains Johnson. "These fungi develop new physiological races quite easily, so it's an ongoing arms race. Many of our varieties are already resistant to the full range BI:16-37 EU, Fusarium, and - in the case of spinach - PE 1-19. Fusarium is a major issue in Spain, and we are now seeing a new strain of mildew emerging in Europe. We need to come up with new varieties to combat this."
Growers everywhere are facing an acute labor shortage, so there is a big demand for varieties that can be machine harvested.
"In our Eazyleaf range, we have varieties for high-density production for the processing industry, which supplies the market for bagged salads."
"Enza Zaden is at the forefront when it comes to breeding new varieties, we have the whole range for both indoor and outdoor production."
For more information:
John Robert Johnson
Enza Zaden
Tel.: +44 (0) 1386 424559
Email: jr.johnson@enzazaden.co.uk
www.enzazaden.co.uk