Benefits through partnership
"We wanted to give our tomatoes a face"
There is a girl on the box of tomatoes from the brand Red Vine. Columnist Wouter Klootwijk noticed it. "The Dutch tomato girl smiles just as infectiously and just as quietly as Mona Lisa in the Louvre museum in Paris. But the girl is not a painting, not a drawn portrait; she is not made up. Her photo is on the tomato box. She exists."
Wouter writes about it in a column that appeared in various newspapers last Friday, such as the Noordhollands Dagblad.
The girl is not world-famous, Wouter acknowledges, not yet. The columnist recognizes the value of something personal on the packaging and is particularly drawn to the girl's smile. But who is that girl? It is the tomato grower's daughter, photographed by her mother. "We wanted to give our tomatoes a face," the grower tells the columnist. That worked, Wouter believes. All other tomatoes do not have such a girl with an enigmatic little smile.
Regarding the smile, Wouter writes in his column: "But her smile! We know it well, and half the world knows it. A modest, endearing, mysterious smile. A smile that has been spoken of for centuries because of its meaning. Not so long ago, psychologists claimed after research (how can one possibly research a smile?) that it is the smile of a woman who is very satisfied with something. Psychologists dare to assert such things outright because no one can contradict them; we cannot call her up."
Front page photo: © Wouter Klootwijk
Publication date: Tue 29 Apr. 2025
For the full newspaper article, click here:
During Fruit Logistica 2024, ZON and BASF | Nunhems has signed a cooperation agreement to jointly create a strong and growing market position in retail, processing, and foodservice for the new ‘Round Intense’ tomato.
The ‘Round Intense’ tomato combines the unique characteristics of the well-known ‘Plum Intense’ tomato in a round variety. The ‘Intense’ properties—firm flesh, ease of slicing, and very limited moisture loss during and after slicing—are retained. The variety, with a larger diameter than the ‘Plum Intense’, opens up new applications, such as topping hamburgers.
"The fact that we at ZON are already well-positioned based on our market position with the ‘Plum Intense’ enables us to develop the market for this new product as well," stated the cooperative. For more information:
ZON
Venrayseweg 102
5928 RH Venlo
Tel: +31 77 323 9999
info@royalzon.com
www.royalzon.com
Hans Driessen
BASF Vegetable Seeds
hans.driessen@vegetableseeds.basf.com
www.nunhems.nl
Publication date: Mon Feb 12, 2024
This autumn, there are once again autumn-grown vine tomatoes under the GartenNova brand, cultivated at Herelse Heide Nursery in Heerle.
A new billboard about the Dutch tomato hangs along the A58 near Oirschot. This clearly indicates what Dutch tomatoes stand for.
This month, Intense tomatoes, or Food Service Tomatoes, are the "vegetable of the month" at Albert Hein supermarkets. You can now easily try out this tomato, which is known for being firm to the touch and not losing moisture when sliced.
On Friday, March 4, Theo van der Kaaij of Kaaij Nursery in Berlicum appeared on TV in the program Binnenstebuiten. The program discussed the production of "Red Vine". A fine example of sustainable entrepreneurship, showing how you can turn residual products into alternative products. Below is the link to the broadcast.www.kro-ncrv.nl/binnenstebuiten/seizoenen/2016/30-144553-04-03-2016/290-112571-tomaten.
