Bayer increases fruit, vegetable portfolio with launch of two products

Taking advantage of the week in which World Food Day was celebrated on 16th October, Bayer announced the launch of two solutions for the fruit and vegetable market, which are ComandanTY Tomato and the TigerGrey Zucchini from its Seminis seed line. The new products are part of the portfolio that the company has developed to bring more productivity to farmers and more flavor and quality to final consumers’ plates.

ComandanTY Tomato is the brand's first indeterminate tomato with tolerance to TY, one of the main tomato viruses. Combined with pest management, the variety is an alternative aimed at combating the incidence of whiteflies in crops. Furthermore, it has good adaptability to rainy periods, high fruit set, better fruit quality and tolerance to cracking.

The second novelty, TigerGrey Zucchini, was developed for a year-round production window, according to each region and season. It is an extremely vigorous and commercially attractive product, presenting excellent color and uniformity of fruits at harvest. With excellent behavior against powdery mildew, one of the main diseases of the crop, it also has intermediate resistance to the viruses, WMV (Watermelon mosaic virus) and ZYMV (Zucchini yellow mosaic virus).

″The development of innovative solutions for fruit and vegetables is the result of an investment of around €2.8 billion allocated globally by the company every year for R&D on various crops. This effort is in addition to other Bayer initiatives that assist the fight against hunger and aim to support more efficient and sustainable food production, in line with our vision of 'Health for all, Hunger for no one',″ said Daniela Augustinho, Marketing Manager at Seminis. 

″World Food Day is an extremely important day to reinforcing this commitment, and one of Bayer's major priorities is to take concrete action against food insecurity. As a company, our goals for 2030 are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and with the Paris Climate Agreement. Seminis' portfolio is designed to provide solutions that reinforce this commitment, improving the lives of producers and consumers as a whole,″ she added.

Bayer currently operates in more than 20 crops with approximately 120 varieties of vegetables sold in Brazil.

Latest releases

In addition to ComandanTY Tomato and TigerGrey Zucchini, in recent years, there has been an intense period of launches within the Seminis brand, which have had significant impact in the field. Some of the highlights were solutions for the tomato rootstock segment and the repositioning of AG 1051 corn, a traditional hybrid in the green corn market, exclusively for fresh consumption, used both in its natural form and as the main ingredient in the preparation of recipes.

In 2023 in the crop protection market, Bayer also presented the leaflet extension for Verango^® Prime, launched last year for the effective and long-lasting control of nematodes and early blight (Alternaria grandis) that attack potatoes. Starting this year, the nematicide began to be prescribed for new crops, such as carrots, beets, melons, watermelons, bananas, tomatoes and guava.