During the middle nineties the Belgian horticultural sector - and especially tomato cultivation - was hit by a serious crisis. In order to solve this problem VLAM introduced the Flandria quality label and that was at the same time the start of the development of a series of new tomato varieties. "A success story" Jan Prinsen of the Belgian Fresh Food Institute confirms, although he fears that there are limits to the continuously further growing differences, which may well have been reached.
"Both consumers and shop owners can hardly follow all this."
"The scenario is not without foundation: a client planning to buy tomatoes goes home with a head of lettuce, because he was afraid to buy the wrong tomatoes. Too much choice is crippling and neither the consumer nor the shopkeeper are benefitting from that. There are very many tomatoes and there is nobody who still knows when and for which dish which tomato should be purchased. The discounters
do not offer this very large choice and in this way make it a lot easier for the consumer" Jan Prinsen says. "This is one of the reasons why they can increase their share of the fruit and vegetable sales: less references, quicker rotation each reference and therefore day-fresh products all the time on the shelf." According to
the expert there are other arguments as well to limit the supply. "By offering 20% of the number of varieties 80% of the demand and of the potential turnover are satisfied. Also: the more varieties the slower the rotation and the more difficult
to offer fresh product every day. Also many varieties will only have a little space and less varieties can be shown much better in the shop. Jan emphasizes that 10 varieties are sufficient to offer to the consumer.
Prinsen is a champion for decreasing the supply, but that does not mean that there is no space for renewal. "The shop owner could every now and then offer a variety, which normally is not on the shelf. For instance a 'Tomato of the week'. This brings the necessary dynamics in the assortment."