Pop Vriend Seeds showcases baby leaf innovation

Pop Vriend Seeds joined forces with Tozer Ibérica recently to present its new spinach varieties to Spanish growers at a series of open days at Tozer’s Los Olivos trial farm in El Albujón, Murcia.

From its portfolio of almost 50 varieties of spinach, Pop Vriend highlighted three for the next season: Quartz, Dolomite and Azurite. The latter is a new variety of baby leaf, adapted to the winter of Murcia and with a total resistance to mildew.

During the open days, Pop Vriend presented its ‘Spinach 365’ programme. “With this programme we help producers to supply the same quality of leaf and in the desired quantities to supermarkets throughout the year, bringing greater consistency to supply,” said René van Meijel, team leader at Baby Leaf Europe.

The fight against downy mildew and other leaf spot diseases is another threat to spinach crops. To help producers understand their causes and improve the sustainability of crops, Pop Vriend presented its Spot Disease Kit Foliar. With this service, it seeks to effectively fight the disease by promoting a collaborative approach that helps develop better tolerances in its assortment of varieties.

Finally, the Initio nutrient substrate was also present in the test field. Customers were able to see the benefits of this nutrient-rich coating, which provides a strong start to spinach crops, helping them achieve their full growth and yield potential. Launched in September 2022, Initio is already applied to 40 per cent of European spinach orders.

From this year, Pop Vriend is no longer organised by geographic regions but by client teams. Regional sales director José Carlos Grajeda said this reflected the fact that customer needs and the dynamics of the value chain are not limited by geographical borders.

“The interesting debates that arose at the Murcia Open Days between baby leaf producers from different countries and specialists from around the world have shown us this,” he said.