For plant breeding company Breedx, this year's Fruit Logistica in Berlin served as an important meeting point with international growers, marketers and industry partners. The company used the event to present its speciality vegetable portfolio, hold scheduled meetings with customers and organise follow-up visits to its demonstration greenhouse in Spain.
According to Yaron Giras, Sales & Marketing Manager for North America at Breedx, the event provided an efficient platform to engage with a global audience. "This year we continued the conversations with retailers and supermarket chains, which is something we will develop further. Understanding what retailers and consumers are looking for helps us guide our breeding strategy, especially when it comes to flavour, snack products and differentiation on the shelf."
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Connecting the trade show with greenhouse visits
Ahead of and after the event, the company also welcomed visitors to its demonstration greenhouse in Almería, Spain. "Customers could visit our demo fields in Almería to see the plants performing in the greenhouse and to taste the fruit themselves," Yaron says. "This is important because growers and marketers want to evaluate the full package – not only the plant performance but also the flavour and market appeal."
To facilitate this experience during the event itself, the company brought packaged fruit samples from Spain. These included our leading sweet mini seedless peppers and flavor tomato selections that visitors could taste during meetings.
"Instead of only presenting brochures or catalogues, we brought fresh fruit so people could really experience our products," Yaron adds. "The feedback was very positive. People liked the flavour and it gave us confidence in the direction we are taking."
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Visitors attending the Breedx demonstration greenhouse in Almería, Spain
Focus on specialty peppers and flavour-driven tomatoes
Breedx continues to focus primarily on specialty vegetable development, particularly in sweet & seedless peppers. The company is also expanding its tomato programme with an emphasis on flavour-driven breeding.
"Our tomatoes are focused on very special taste profiles – a unique balance of sugar and acidity coming from conventional breeding," Yaron explains. "It's not just selection; it's about combining traits to create a distinctive flavour."
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Intensive meetings with global partners
For Yotam Guetta, Business Development Manager North Europe at Breedx, the three-day event was characterised by a full schedule of meetings with growers, marketers and potential fresh produce distribution partners.
"It was a very intense three days with back-to-back meetings with existing customers and potential partners. We presented our portfolio and then continued discussions in Almería, where customers could see the plants and fruit in a greenhouse environment."
Beyond grower engagement, the company also used the event to strengthen relationships further along the value chain.
"As mentioned, this year we expanded the conversations with retailers and supermarket chains to better understand what the end consumer is looking for. These were significant meetings as they are important because they help us adapt our breeding programmes to market needs."
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Snack vegetables and specialty products gain momentum
Feedback from those discussions suggests strong interest in differentiated vegetable categories. "The market is ready for specialities and innovation, especially products with unique taste or new characteristics," Yotam notes. "Snack vegetables were a major theme during the show, not only for peppers and tomatoes but across different crops."
Breedx currently concentrates its commercial activities mainly on the North American and European markets.
"As a relatively small company, we focus our resources on North America and Europe for now," Yaron says. "There is interest from many other regions, and we had conversations from people globally, but these two markets are our main priority."
Looking ahead, the company is continuing to expand its specialty breeding pipeline.
"In peppers we are already developing additional sweet & seedless types, including dulce Italian-type, midi blocky peppers," he adds. "These are still in development, but they represent the direction we are moving toward."
Tomato breeding is also progressing with a similar focus on flavour differentiation. "We continue to work on small tomatoes as well as elongated Roma and salad-type tomatoes with enhanced taste," he added. "The goal is always the same: delivering distinctive flavour through conventional breeding."
For more information:
Breedx
Shani Sinay, Marketing Manager
[email protected]
www.breedx.com
