Yuksel Seeds will take part for the fourth consecutive year in the Fruitnet Tomato Congress, which moves to a new venue this year and will be held on 5 and 6 November at the facilities of the Granada La Palma cooperative, on the coast of Granada. The company will attend as sponsor and exhibitor, and will contribute to the conference programme with a talk by Nico Van Vliet, the company’s Downstream Integration Lead.
Organised by Fruitnet, the congress is the leading annual meeting point for the international tomato business. Over two days it will bring together growers, marketers, distributors and seed companies for a programme of talks, expert panels and networking, followed by technical visits to facilities in the area.
In “The Role of Storytelling in Driving Premium Heirloom Consumption”, Van Vliet will argue that tasting good is not enough for heirloom tomatoes to win space on the shelf: they need a story that consumers understand. He will start from how the market currently perceives this type of tomato and show how field and lab data can be turned into sales arguments for the whole value chain.
He will also look at how to market class 2 tomatoes in different formats to fine-tune pricing, reach more consumers and reduce waste, and even at the role of in-store music, which according to a GEMA study can increase sales by around 8%.
On its stand, Yuksel Seeds will present a wide selection of its tomato portfolio. In the heirloom segment, the star will be Sweetloom, the company’s purple heirloom tomato, recognised by the International Taste Institute in 2025 and again in 2026. It will be joined by the pink heirloom Tobrossa, Tobchoco and the oxheart Amortoma.
The range is completed by the plum tomato varieties Marcus and Octavius and the cherry tomatoes Tiziano, Minizano and the Glow series, made up of Red Glow, White Glow and Yellow Glow. Much of this portfolio carries resistance to ToBRFV, one of the sector’s main concerns in recent years. Full information on these varieties is available at www.sinmiedoalrugoso.com.
For Francisco Sabio, Country Manager of Yuksel Seeds Spain: "coming back to the Tomato Congress means sitting down again with the people who drive the tomato sector, and doing it in Granada, surrounded by production, brings the conversation much closer to the field. This year we don’t just want to talk about varieties, but about how to sell them. Heirloom tomatoes have a lot to say, and Nico’s talk puts the data on the table to do it. We thank Fruitnet for once again counting on us as exhibitors and speakers."
With its participation in the Tomato Congress, Yuksel Seeds closes the year by strengthening its commitment to tomato innovation and turns its attention to its next major international event: Fruit Logistica 2027 in Berlin.
