A new super-sweet tomato variety, developed by the Israel-based seed specialist behind the cherry tomato, is heading for Europe.

Maggie is a variety of standard round tomato, with a Brix sweetness rating of 5.5 - up to five and a half times sweeter than standard round tomato varieties.

Hazera Genetics, which is based in Brorim, is seeking UK growers to trial the cross breed in glasshouses in the UK, to check resulting yields and quality.

Maggie went into supermarkets in Israel earlier this year, where it is marketed in trays labelled, ‘The Tastiest Gourmet Tomato in Israel’ and is popular for use in salads and as an ingredient in cooking.

The response to Maggie in consumer panel tests was very good, said Yaron Giras, tomato senior product manager at Hazera. “People are looking more and more back to flavour.”

Up to 10% of tomatoes worldwide are grown from Hazera seeds.

Topics