Why ToBRFV is also a success story

Most people in the tomato business think of wrinkled patches and brown scars, unsellable fruits, and lost harvest, when they hear “ToBRFV”, or Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus. But I also think of a reassuring success story that demonstrates the resilience of the whole industry and how we at BASF I Nunhems embrace the challenges of our customers and place all our focus in developing varieties which provide solutions to growers needs, in record time.  

I was Account Manager for Hi-tech Crops in Mexico, when in 2018, our farmers were affected by ToBRFV. This outbreak brought about a sudden change in the rules of the industry. Being a tomato grower got more complicated, it was a tremendous challenge to grow the tomatoes and export them to the US. New restrictions on US imports of tomatoes and peppers were issued, all Mexican exports of this crops had to be accompanied by an inspection certificate document. This translated into big losses due to unmarketable fruits and extremely low yields. From our perspective, we also faced challenges importing and delivering the tomato seed on time to our growers. New ToBRFV seed testing requirements were set in place, the goal and the outcome was positive without a doubt, but certainly the new implementation caused a bottle neck on the import process. Clearly, these were highly challenging times for the whole tomato industry.   

At that time, there were no commercially available resistant varieties against ToBRFV. BASF | Nunhems recognized the urgent need to develop resistant varieties to meet market requirements and deliver competitive yields even under the high pressure of the virus. So, we took the early decision to change our breeding programs completely focused on rugose resistance. In 2021, we launched the very first resistant variety in Mexico, where growers were particularly hard hit. We started with our cherry plum tomato variety Teenon, which combined resistance with strong agronomic performance. In the same year, we followed up with a set of successful introductions in the Roma / Saladette market such as Blindon and Azovian. With a better understanding of the virus, we continued to breed for other tomato segments, including the high-tech segments in the USA and Canada. We launched our successful varieties like Vitalion and Ronvine.  

For me, this story is a prime example of our conviction that success – for us and for growers – is based on innovation. We work hard to bring innovation to the market and listen carefully to our customers to integrate their needs into our breeding strategies.