Burgundy; a revolutionary new purple sprouting broccoli from Elsoms Seeds

Elsoms Seeds, the UK’s leading independent seed specialist and plant breeder, is proud to announce the launch of Burgundy, a breakthrough new variety of purple sprouting broccoli. Burgundy is an outstanding new variety, with a wealth of features and benefits for the whole supply chain.

Available all year round, Burgundy provides fresh and tender spears, which are easy to prepare. Burgundy has a vibrant purple colour and a sweet taste and is available in a variety of formats, suiting consumers and retailers. Spears are easy to prepare, having fewer leaves than older varieties, and are available in a variety of formats, including as a whole-head.

For retailers, Burgundy provides an all-year-round available crop which adds colour and interest to the shelf. Spears of Burgundy are compatible with all packaging types currently used for purple sprouting broccoli, and due to its unique growth habit, it is also available as a whole head. This provides significant opportunity to expand the market for sprouting broccoli. Having fewer leaves on the spears means that the crop looks fresher for longer on-shelf.

For processors, Burgundy’s easy-to-handle whole heads can be packaged as-is, or sub-divided into individual spears. Spears have fewer leaves, than traditional varieties and have good colour and flavour, making Burgundy an ideal variety for including in prepared meals.

For growers, Burgundy stands out as the variety of choice. It is an exceptionally high yielding and highly uniform hybrid. It has a very short and reliable time to harvest of 70 days from planting. It only requires a single cut of the head, completely removing the need to repeat-cut the crop on two or three occasions, and facilitating mechanical harvesting. It has shown excellent tolerance to pests and diseases throughout its development and field trials.

Elsoms’ Chairman Roger Keeling said “We are so proud of our breeding teams for their work in creating Burgundy. They have listened to and learned from the whole supply chain in order to create this outstanding new variety. I’m confident that this breakthrough will significantly expand the market for sprouting broccoli.”

For over 20 years, Elsoms Seeds and Bejo Zaden have worked together on their joint breeding programme for sprouting broccoli. This highly successful hybrid programme has created market leading varieties such as purple sprouting Santee, Rioja, Mendocino, Pozo and Bonarda. The portfolio also includes the unique hybrid white sprouting variety Burbank.