b'processing tomatoes and what our customers, whether they areMarchese says that working to extend this window, to provide farmers or processors, need to be successful, Marchese says.more time to harvest a tomato crop before spoilage begins, is an Every person, every day is focused solely on tomatoes. effort Heinz continues to work towards. The specific focus on tomatoes not only provides for betterExtended Field Storage or EFS, is unique to Heinz varieties varieties, but better farmers, as well, and Marchese sites Heinzsand a varietal benchmark our teams put a lot of emphasis on, global presence as an agronomic support mechanism for farm- he says, Basically, we will monitor test fields and evaluate how ers that need it.long the harvest window is within the ideal condition. Once we In some countries we have an agriculture lead that helpshave confidence that we have identified an EFS variety, we will farmers with agronomic decisions, he says. We do that wheredesignate it as such in our seed catalog.we have determined more support is neededto help farmers. So, for instance, in California, that isnt something that we are providing formally, but in Poland, Brazil and China we have identi- We want to be the best food company: the best for our fied an opportunity to help farmers improve their field conditions.customers, the best for the environment and the best And, even though they have been growing tomatoes in those countries for years, we have been able to add to their yields.for the next generation. The objective of Heinzs agronomic support is to provide John Marchesevarieties and suggestions for improvement that yield for both the farmer-grower and processor, in every region Heinz varieties of tomatoes are grown in. Varieties must also afford the durability to withstand unfavorable conditions, and Marchese notes that hardy,At the end of the day, the ingenuity and customer-firstdisease resistant varieties are paramount to the success of pro- from farmer-grower to processor to the dinner tableapproach duction, both from a processor and farmer-grower point-of-view.Heinz has implemented for more than a century is still at the core Unlike many cash-crops, the window for tomato harvest isof everything the company does. narrow, and depending on which region of the world the crop isWe want to be the best food company: the best for our cus-being grown in, peak harvest conditions may offer as few as fivetomers, the best for the environment and the best for the next days before a crop begins to spoil.generation, Marchese says.SW FEBRUARY 2020SEEDWORLD.COM /7'