tradicionalmenteinovador - Brazil Buyers & Sellers

The segment of vegetables, in view
of the production challenges posed by
demand, has been coming up with new
alternatives to attract new consumers.
Besides attempting to make strides on the
industrial side, the segment has embarked
on the minimally processed horticultural
products, that is to say, physically modified,
but kept in their fresh state. Bound to
a similar direction, but specifically focused
on size reductions, the so-called mini vegetables
are now steadily making it to the
market, and so are baby vegetables, and
they enjoy great popularity and are highly
valued by consumers that go in for easy
to use items.
The mini vegetables are created
through genetic enhancement programs
and their seed, in most cases is
hybrid and imported, while baby vegetables
result from crop management
practices, like anticipated harvest and,
in the case of young leaves, they are
known as baby leaf. The explanation
is given by Luis Felipe Villani Purquerio,
of the Center for Horticulture run by
the Agronomic Institute of Campinas,
and Paulo César Tavares de Melo, of
the Vegetable Production Department
controlled by the well known Luiz de
Queiroz College of Agriculture, linked
with the University of (Esalq/USP).
Among the miniaturized products,
besides the minimally processed and
smaller in size, like the mini-carrots, the
best known is the cherry tomato. Other
horticultural products that enjoy the
same status include pumpkin, lettuce,
eggplant, chayote, cauliflower, cucumber,
pepper and watermelon, and
others. The cherry tomato also comes
in another version known as grape tomato,
with a shape similar to a grape
berry, deep red color and a very sweet
taste. It is selling briskly, although a box
of 180-grams sells for R$ 3. Likewise, the
mini watermelon, weighing from two to
three kilos, seedless, deep green, fetches
up to six times higher prices than traditional
watermelons. Baby leaves also
sell for high prices, sometimes fetching
R$ 5 per 120-gram box of lettuce,
NOVELTIES OFFER
PRACTICALITY, BUT
WEIGH HEAVY ON
THE POCKET
watercress, beet, mizuna cabbage and
wakame mustard. This combination
imparts a high nutritional value to the
product, Purquerio and Melo confirm.
What characterizes the baby leaf is
practicality, with a packaged product,
sanitized and ready to consume.
Specialists of the sector envision in
these market niches a potential for expansion,
since the number of childless
couples and people living alone is on
the rise in big centers, and they all seek
options. For the productive sector, it
translates into a chance for expanding
their vegetable cultivations and, for the
technical-scientific sector, it represents
new requirements for further studies
and the generation of knowledge for
developing the sector.