The Tatayoyo pepper, with its unique flavour whose size fits between a snack pepper and bell pepper, earned Netherlands-based Rijk Zwaan gold in the 2023 Innovation Awards at Fruit Logistica in Berlin.
It is the third time that Rijk Zwaan has captured the coveted award.
“From the very beginning, our goal with Tatayoyo was to breed a pepper that is not only sweet but also tastes savoury and aromatic,” said Heleen van Rijn-Wassenaar, Specialist Marketing & Business Development at Rijk Zwaan.
From its conception to creation, the painstaking process took Rijk Zwaan a decade to perfect. In the end, what it got is a tropical-looking pepper with “fruit notes” whose sizes is smaller than a traditional bell but bigger than a snack pepper.
“Ten years ago, we started breeding the peppers until the taste, color and size met our expectations,” said grower adds grower Bianca van Haperen. “Now we have a product that also convinces consumers.”
Another Netherlands company, Sygenta Seeds, finished with the silver for its IDEAL Melons concept, whose Harvest Indicator feature can tell when melons are ready to be picked, then shipped and stored on shelves at supermarkets and other stores. Third place went to Spanish company Anecoop for its Brocomole ¿Y si? de Bouquet, which is a guacamole dip that include broccoli to help reduce the carbon footprint of avocados.
Among the other prize winners included in the Top 10 was the UK-based Packing Automation’s evolutionS tray sealing machine. Here are the others:
Avisomo’s Growth Station: A fully modular, scalable, flexible and automatable vertical farming system. It enables growers worldwide to produce any crop without changing infrastructure, at any scale and degree of automation. www.avisomo.com
BIOMETiC’s Q Eye Smart: The only scanner entirely based on an Artificial Intelligence platform, allowing more precise and automatic fruit quality sorting. Its innovative technology substantially upgrades the entire sorting process and assures top-quality produce.
www.biometic.com/food-inspection-systems/optical-sorter-q-eye-smart
Food Autonomy’s LEDFan Greenhouse Toplight: The fanoffers savings on lighting and heating costs through a highly efficient design that utilises heat loss with controlled fans. The light fixture has a wireless control system with grid-based BMS positioning and light failure detection. foodautonomy.org/en/products/greenhouse-ledfan
Koppert Cress’ Dutch premium quality vanilla: An exclusive range of premium Dutch vanilla of the Planifolia variety, a species of orchid that forms pods only after three years. This vanilla is comparable to a semi-dry muscat grape: it is not yet a raisin, but actually much more. In principle, it is grown in the same way as the black variety, but due to the fact that it is harvested much later, the taste is different. www.koppertcress.com/en/travel-stories/super-vette-vanille
Markische Hofe Beelitz’s Pfannenspargel: Green and white asparagus pieces pre-cooked in their own juice ready for cooking. This gives a more intense flavour with a longer shelf-life. Whether as a main course or side dish, ther pan-fried asparagus can be expanded as desired and arranged individually in a short time. www.spargel.farm/en/about-us
Oranfresh’s OR Apple Juice Fill Up: An automatic self-service machine that supplies freshly made apple juice in bottles from fresh apples, with an added solution of water and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) to prevent natural oxidation. www.oranfresh.com
