Watermelon diseases

The watermelon app is a practical instrument for growers to recognise diseases

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.