b'may vary per country. Of course, we monitor these developments closely.Kraan agrees that new breeding techniques will help to better understand the function of the genes. Varieties with more yield and more resistances contribute to a more sustainable pro-duction. These new tools are needed to facilitate the develop-ment of such varieties.This concerns Aust. If we had the opportunity to use new breeding methods, we would have opened up unimaginable pos-sibilities of breeding new varieties, which we would otherwise have reached in decades. In the mean time, for example, we would address the issue of over-use of pesticides, which is an important issue in cucumbers. It is a crop with frequent harvests and growers are limited in the protection of plants by choosing fewer effective products with a short protection period.We live in the era of precision breeding, in which new breeding techniques help to achieve new varieties in shorter times and with less investment, says Gonzlez-Cabezuelo. He underlines that technologies such as whole-genome-sequencing, helped by other disciplines such as bioinformatics or big data, will become routine in cucumber breeding programs in the very short term.GROWTH MARKETSFor Meridiem Seeds, the main cucumber markets are Spain (Almeria mainly) and Italy, says Gonzlez-Cabezuelo. Nevertheless, we are increasing our presence in other EuropeanGetting a cucumber flower ready for pollination. Source: Meridiem Seedsand non-European countries. Aust explains that the sales environment of cucumbers is divided by type and adds that for greenhouse cucumbers, this is dependent on the availability of covered areas and their con-sumption is relatively stable from his point of view. We see salad cucumbers as a stagnant segment, but thePersonally, I hope that in situation may change positively in the context of the innovations being prepared. We observe yearly fluctuations in our loaders,20 years a cucumber will which are influenced by the weather in any given year, but over-all, we are seeing a slight increase in all our markets in Europe. still be a cucumber.Suelmanns company is active in all important markets. We see that trade policies and disease outbreaks are affecting theJos Mara Gonzlez-Cabezuelomarkets. Also, climate change has its effect. It is not easy to predict where the most growth will be, but we are ready to meet these changes.For us the growth market is Asia, but I should add that a bottleneck in cucumber cultivation nowadays is the lack of avail-ability of labour and skilled people. In long cucumber, almost 50In addition to the preservation, cucumbers are abundantly per cent of the total costs are labour costs. With the developmentfresh, so I believe that in 20 years the cucumber varieties will be of mini and snack cucumber varieties, we make it even moreeven more profitable. Perhaps new forms of cucumbers will be difficult for the grower: daily picking is necessary, says Bal.available, but I hope they will be at least as juicy with the typical The smaller the size, the more frequent harvesting.cucumber aroma as we know today.Breeding is looking for solutions. Adaptation in traits to improveA lot more diversification will be seen in supermarkets, the plant architecture is one direction to reduce labour costs.says Kraan. Local produce and sustainable production are the Automatization and robotization are clear needs for the future, tofuture. The basic types will remain the same as they are now, let the cucumber culture survive in Northern Europe. In the U.S.but it is expected that diversification will happennot to the in gherkin, once-over harvesters are used. Harvesting robots areextent it happened in tomatoes, but different shapes, grades and in development for greenhouses, but yet not in practice. maybe even tastes will appear.Bal feels that there will be more variation on the shelf with a TWENTY YEARS FROM NOW differentiation in type and colour. The focus will be on snacking In the future, a good cucumber variety should be suitable toand the convenience segment.be grown in the most sustainable form of agriculture with lowerMarkets are changing, and trends rotate around [end-user] impact to the environment and a higher balance of input versusdemand. That is why this is a difficult question for me, says output conditions, predicts Abad.Gonzlez-Cabezuelo. For example, a certain trend was recently Aust looks back and mentions that during the history ofobserved towards snack or mini types in practically all horti-Moravo Seed, for example, since 1991, cucumbers have under- cultural species, but that may change in a few years in favour of gone some changes, but in particular there has been a devel- other morphological, organoleptic or nutritional characteristics. opment in yield, resistance, taste characteristics and varietalPersonally, I hope that in 20 years a cucumber will still be a variability.cucumber.34IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'