Feb 24, 2020
Syngenta has been getting lots of attention for its Yoom tomato variety ever since it debuted last summer. The company has boasted of its excellent yield in pilot trials and its superior shelf life. The Switzerland-based ag-tech company said the tomato’s genetics are easily adapted to the modern greenhouse environment.
And this Syngenta’s purple-skinned Yoom tomato has won an innovation award earlier this month at the Fruit Logistica Innovation Awards 2020 in Berlin. The new variety, which the Swiss seed and agrochemical firm developed through a natural selection breeding program, is said to have a tangy sweet-sour flavor and a umami taste.
According to Syngenta’s CEO Erik Fyrwald, the new tomato is what consumers are looking for when shopping because they are tasty, healthy and convenient. He also called development of the variety “a fantastic achievement” for consumers.
This tomato variety was favoured for its color, ranging from purple to black; its high vitamin, mineral and antioxidant content; and its savory flavor. The product was also recognized for its cardboard packaging sourced from sustainably managed forests.
The company won previously in 2012 for a seedless red snack pepper variety called Angello that also comes in yellow and orange. Colors can be just as important to consumers as flavors, so combining the two in a new tomato variety could be a smart move for the global seed company.
Other tomato developments in the works include snack-sized colorful varieties created by a Cornell University associate professor of plant breeding and genetics, research into using genome engineering techniques to produce in tomatoes the same elements that make chili peppers hot, and gene-edited tomato plants grown in compact bunches in small areas.