Syngenta Yoom® tomato is prized by Swiss supermarket chain

Switzerland is known for its beautiful mountains and evergreen meadows where grazing cows produce wholesome milk from which butter and world-famous cheeses are made. But this mountainous country, thanks to innovation, has also been able to develop a modern and efficient fruit and vegetable production system.

Consumers increasingly attentive to the quality and sustainable origin of produce have contributed to the development of a local market in which the cultivation of vegetables is the second most important branch of the Swiss agricultural sector. Vegetable producers grow more than 100 vegetable varieties on around 16,000 hectares of land. One of the country’s largest producers of vegetable is the TIOR agriculture cooperative.

In 2020, the big Swiss supermarket chain COOP, noting the rising popularity of a new Syngenta-developed variety of tomato, asked TIOR cooperative to become its sole supplier of that tomato and to provide it year-round.

COOP also had a related request: The tomatoes should be grown using climate-friendly, sustainable methods. That was in keeping with the supermarket chain’s desire to meet consumers’ rising demand for food grown in environmentally friendly ways.

The tomato in the spotlight was Yoom®, a Syngenta Vegetable Seeds variety. The deep-purple Yoom is named for the word “umami,” a term rooted in the Japanese word for delicious. Umami is often described as savory, rich or meaty; it is considered the fifth basic taste, alongside salty, bitter, sweet and sour.

COOP sells Yoom,® offering the tomato through a program called Actions, not Words that attracts premium prices from consumers who care about locally sourced food grown with environmentally compatible methods.

"In a highly regulated market like the Swiss one that has to compete with imported products, TIOR's goal is to ensure a future for the domestic horticultural sector,’’ said Marco Bassi, a proud native of Switzerland’s Ticino region, on the Italian border. Bassi is a managing director of the TIOR cooperative, which has 34 member farms in the region.

Marco Bassi, managing director of the TIOR cooperative

Yooms on the vine in the Orticola Bassi greenhouse

A state-of-the-art greenhouse

To meet its goals under COOP’s Actions, not Words program, in 2022 the Bassi farm — Orticola Bassi — opened an innovative greenhouse designed to be climate-friendly. It can operate 18 hours a day, 365 days a year, producing a variety of fruits and vegetables, including the Yoom.

The greenhouse features low-energy LED lighting and is heated by clean energy that is supplied by a public heat network and supplemented by solar panels. Moreover, the greenhouse uses an extensive water recycling system. And excess organic material from the operation is fed to an energy-producing biogas power plant.

The greenhouse, Bassi said, is in keeping with TIOR’s mission to offer “quality products that are sustainable in terms of production and of high quality from the point of view of innovation."

Jeremie Chabanis, Head of Value Chain for Syngenta Vegetable Seeds in the EAME region, noted the value of participating in TIOR’s program.

“Working with companies like TIOR in Switzerland is crucial for us to understand how to respond to consumer and market needs,” Chabanis said. “From breeding to cultivation techniques, to marketing and promotion, we work closely with our partners in choosing the best varieties for them."

The climate-friendly greenhouse uses low-energy LED lighting

Yoom tomatoes, packed for shipment to COOP supermarkets

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A state-of-the-art greenhouse