Erect crop, dark colour, pointed leaf type, grown in Asia only. Usually harvested by hand.
Green leaves with red veins. Eminently suitable for use in mixed salads.
Relatively thick leaves, slightly blistered. Good shelf life.
Outstanding quality and uniform, erect crop; very suitable for mechanical harvesting. Dark green leaves.
Suitable for the frozen market. Large leaves with as short a stem as possible and very slow to bolt.
Different ways
Spinach has different ways in which it can be used. In the Far East, the product is stir-fried, in Europe it is usually cooked and in English-speaking countries spinach is often eaten raw. Because the latter is a growing market, Rijk Zwaan is working on specific varieties and types for the fresh market. We have, for instance, a red-veined spinach in our range.
Clean and healthy
Spinach breeding is for the greater part about breeding in resistance. Our work includes working on a reliable crop for growers and a clean and healthy product for consumers. Because the product is harvested by machine virtually everywhere, we also select on uniformity, a good germination percentage and slow bolting, which is a strong point of the Rijk Zwaan varieties.
Playing into the market
In the future, too, we will continue to work on resistance breeding: we are getting ever faster and more effective at this thanks to the use of modern techniques. We also continue to play into market conditions. For example, growth in the fresh market means that shelf life is becoming ever more important. In addition, we strive to achieve year-round supplies of our red-veined type.
For information about our varieties visit our subsidiary in your region
