Watermelon diseases

Quality all the way

Hazera’s watermelon

Hazera considers all stakeholders within the fresh chain
as their customer. With watermelon it means that we
draw attention to all requirements needed for watermelon
at each stage from grower up to consumer. As market
leader in seedless mini watermelon we understand
customer needs and translate them to required benefits.
The key to success is innovating through dedicated
research introducing the required qualities for today and
the future aiming for flexibility towards changing market
demands.
Every link in the chain is fundamental in order to innovate
in future varieties. Through our partners in the market we
get a clear direction in order to select the required traits
for their needs and therefore trust is based on long term
partnerships.


The grower


An important focus of our breeding is adapting our
varieties to environmental conditions for example
different climates and soil types, yield consistency,
fruit quality, uniformity and endurance. Other important
grower beneficial targets on which we select our
varieties are labour cost reduction, multiple disease
resistances, earliness and easy fruit setting. The trend
towards grafting requires selection on adaptability and
compatibility on different rootstock types.


Post-harvest stage: the fresh chain

Much happens with watermelons after harvesting:
packing, shipping, storage, processing and selling to
the consumer. Based on identifying needs we look at
different traits required per stage. Important are sizes
required by the markets and household size, appearance
like shape and rind color, shipping qualities, shelf life,
flesh consistency and flesh qualities. The future trend
towards fresh cut requires qualities like flesh consistency
and low waste.


The consumer

The consumer makes the final decision.
Consumer preferences like taste, flesh firmness,
crispiness and flesh color are vital elements of breeding.
Hazera develops convenient size ranges in order to satisfy
consumer purchase preferences. A big benefit of our mini
watermelon range is that it contains a high proportion of
the powerful antioxidant lycopene.