Rijk Zwaan's promotional campaign for Spanish Piel de Sapo melon

The melon is a popular fruit around the world. International vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan continues to invest heavily in developing new varieties that are all characterised by a consistently good flavour. Furthermore, Rijk Zwaan will be working with growers, retailers and processing companies to launch a pan-European campaign this summer to promote its tasty Piel de Sapo varieties. The company is opting for a joint approach on its Beach and Caribbean concepts too.

Online promotion

“Piel de Sapo is a dark-green, striped melon with a light-coloured flesh. It always tops the list for flavour in our consumer research. The melon is very well known and loved in Spain but less so in northern Europe, so we’re keen to change that,” says Vincent van Wolferen, Marketing Specialist Melon at Rijk Zwaan. This summer, the vegetable breeding company is launching an online campaign which will run on its own Love my Salad platform and on Facebook as well as other channels. Van Wolferen: “We are working in close collaboration with food bloggers and retailers in the Netherlands, the UK and Scandinavia. We’re aligning our online promotion with our partners’ sales activities.”

Sun, sea and sand

The company is putting other melons in the spotlight too, such as Cayucos Beach RZ – a Cantaloupe type which is golden yellow on the outside and orange on the inside. American consumers love it, according to Van Wolferen: “Cayucos Beach RZ is the first variety in our Beach concept, which is focused on combining great flavour with extended shelf life (ESL) because a traditional Cantaloupe is very tasty but does not stay fresh for long. We launched this Beach melon, which conjures up a sense of sun, sea and sand, at the PMA Fresh Summit in New Orleans. We promote all our Beach varieties in style – presented as a mini ice cream, with frisbees and surfboards – in conjunction with our chain partners as much as possible.”

New Caribbean variety

Rijk Zwaan is also investing in another Cantaloupe concept with a long shelf life (LSL), called Caribbean. A third variety, Caribbean Victory RZ, was recently added to the existing range comprising the Caribbean Gold RZ and Caribbean King RZ varieties. “These varieties are for winter production as well as summer production, so consumers can enjoy tasty Cantaloupes all year round – which is important both for retailers and for processing companies. And our consumer research shows that Caribbeans are noticeably sweeter than comparable melons,” explains Van Wolferen. Chain partners in North America, the Middle East and Australia are already working with Caribbean varieties.