Hazera California Open Days
Photos courtesy Limor Golan and Jose Arias, Hazera
Hazera’s first vegetable field days in Woodland, California, gave the industry a glimpse of the company’s onion portfolio and newest hybrids. During the event, held Aug. 14-16, Hazera showcased its U.S. portfolio to its U.S. seed industry partners, as well as some major supermarket chains and retail suppliers.
With peppers, tomatoes, melons and personal watermelons on display in the field, a tent housed an assortment of radish, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, broccoli and onions, ranging from short-day onions to long-day onions. Hazera representatives guided field day attendees through the trials and provided information about each variety’s characteristics and its benefits for growers, retailers and consumers. In the process, Hazera received feedback from its partners on the crops and insights about emerging markets, which is valuable information to the company’s research and development department.
Jose Arias with Hazera explains the characteristics of Rhino, a long-day yellow onion.
Although Hazera’s short-day onions were harvested a few months prior to the event, the company was able to show off the onions’ quality. Company reps highlighted one of the newest hybrids, 10255, which most likely will be named Joelino. The productive main-season yellow short-day onion has proven itself over several years in California’s Imperial Valley and other areas of the U.S., according to Ben de Nijs, Hazera’s product manager of onions.
“This variety, which has strong skins and the ability to produce very firm bulbs, is still in its test phase. But in the coming year, we have many trials planned, and we’re expecting this variety to become a strong addition to our portfolio,” de Nijs said.
Hazera’s portfolio of red onions includes both short-day and intermediate-day varieties. Among the red onions Hazera displayed were the early short-day onion Miss Scarlett and the intermediate-day onion Red Sea. Both have established themselves in several red onion markets in the U.S. and Mexico. Another of Hazera’s new varieties in the test phase, hybrid 10415, is a main-season short-day onion described as having an excellent external and internal red color.
In the long-day onion category, Hazera’s yellow variety Rhino has been gaining acreage in the Pacific Northwest market. This hybrid with Spanish tops has strong tolerance to pink root and produces a very storable product, according to the company.
Next up, Hazera is planning to spotlight its onion portfolio at the company’s onion field days scheduled for May 2019 in the Imperial Valley and at the Hazera U.S. field days in central California next August.
Cultivar 10255, a short-day onion from Hazera currently in the test phase, is described as having strong skins and firm bulbs.
Hazera short-day onion breeder Pablo Salgado displays a few of his new varieties.
