An information meeting in preparation for the 2023 processing tomato season was held on Tuesday, March 14, at the premises of the Vaucluse Chamber of Agriculture (France). Among the topics discussed by the SONITO's President, Mr. André Bernard, and its Director, Mr. Robert Giovinazzo, assisted by Mr. Pascal Lenne, were the place and role of the French interbranch association for the processing tomato sector within the management and supervisory bodies of the country’s fruit and vegetable industrial sectors, the various entities in charge of allocating development funds at the French and European levels, as well as the European and worldwide associative organizations of the tomato industry, where the SONITO works alongside its Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek counterparts, etc.
The results of the 2022 season, presented to growers and processors at this meeting, indicate that 2065 hectares were planted with tomatoes for processing, including 424 hectares under organic cultivation, for a total tonnage delivered of 142,000 mT, i.e. 87% of the contracted quantities, of which 26,170 mT were organic. Yields reached 72 mT/ha overall, and 62 mT/ha for organic tomatoes.
A number of results and conclusions of experiments conducted by the SONITO on a dozen varieties on offer from different seed companies (Heinz, United Genetics, Terra Seeds, Harris Moran, BASF, Voltz-ISI) were presented, with a special focus on commercial yields and maturity groupings. In an increasingly demanding context in terms of irrigation, the water requirements of crops during the different vegetative phases (evapotranspiration, crop coefficients) were extensively discussed. Other trials resulted in a comparative evaluation of production results (yield, Brix, water usage efficiency, factory payments) under different conditions during the 2020 and 2021 harvest seasons, and highlighted the extreme importance of the ratio between tomato production and water usage.
The director of the SONITO also spoke about current plant-health issues, and commented on the news regarding the withdrawal from use and approval requirements for herbicides, acaricides, insecticides and fungicides in the cultivation of processing tomatoes. The problem of weed control is likely to be significant by 2024 or 2025 when, if there are no new approvals, it will be necessary to resort to exemptions because usage will be "empty".
The legislative and regulatory aspects of the European Union were discussed, focusing on the major current issues of pesticides (an impact study is underway), energy (cyclical and structural aid), soil quality (legislative proposal underway for "healthy soils by 2050" and carbon storage in agricultural soils), the CAP (budget, reinforced eco-conditionality), labeling standards, new genomic techniques (as a response to climatic hazards and objectives for reducing pesticides and water usage) and water management.
A detailed presentation of the Operational Programs (their contents and objectives, their functioning and their financing) preceded a SWOT analysis and a presentation of the needs and challenges to be met by 2030, while the French processing industry has set itself the goal of raising its capacity to cover the country’s needs to around 25% (currently about 10%).
Source: SONITO
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