“Always looking for the perfect pumpkin”

Dutch people are eating more pumpkins. Sales aren’t skyrocketing, but this seems to be changing. Pumpkins are available year round. Several varieties hit the market each year, but most seem to prefer the orange kind. Takii Europe BV, is the European base of operations for Takii & Company. Ltd. in Japan. Takii Europe BV is an integrated seed company engaged in the breeding and marketing of a wide range of flower and vegetable varieties. At the moment, Takii is busy developing pumpkins.

This development doesn’t come out of the blue. In Japan, where Takii's parent company Takii & Company. Ltd. is headquartered, the pumpkin is extremely popular. “There are many good pumpkins,” says Jelle Kleijn of Takii, “But we are always looking for the perfect one. Right now, we’re looking into prolonging shelf life.”
Varieties developed by the company are Delica, Sweet Mama, Uchiki Kuri and Jubily.

Another company interested in looking for the perfect pumpkin is De Terp Squashpackers. According to Jeroen Robbers the advance of the product’s popularity makes the effort worthwhile: “The pumpkin has a much wider audience these days. Today, it’s widely available at most retailers.”
De Terp Squashpackers has become something of a specialist. “We rely on our own crop from July to February. After that, we import from our own growers in New Zealand and Argentina.”

Fresh Produce company Pom-Poms has been cultivation green pumpkins for three years now. “We do that on purpose,” says Sandra Cryns, “to distinguish ourselves from the orange variety. We believe the green variety has more taste and better quality.” The company is currently marketing the Sweet Star, and is the only one growing Takii’s rugby pumpkin. The TI 126 is a relatively new variety. It was introduced in 2010 and is considered an improvement of the Delica. “Green pumpkins are often associated with unripe, but they happen to be very tasty and have a nut-like flavour.”

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