Slicer carrots: More exciting and challenging than ever

SLICER CARROTS:

MORE EXCITING AND CHALLENGING THAN EVER NEVER CALL A SLICING CARROT “JUST A CARROT”. THE ORANGE VEGETABLE, A STAPLE FOOD SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL, HAS HAD A RICH HISTORY AND AN EXCITING EVOLUTION. THE MARRIED GROWERS KRIS DEBEUCKELAERE AND KATLEEN MACKELBERG OF STADEN, BELGIUM, SHARE THEIR VIEWS ON THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES POSED

BY THIS CROP. PHILIP HOFLACK AND STIJN VANDELANOTTE OF THE GLOBAL PLAYER HORAFROST WEIGH IN TOO.

Carrots. You can do anything with them, they’re super healthy, and everybody likes them. And for Kris Debeuckelaere and Katleen Mackelberg, they’re an essential part of every work day. On the farm they run, the couple grow vegetables and raise pigs. They have 260 sows, and along with carrots they also cultivate cauliflower, potatoes, wheat and maize.

“My father started growing carrots for slicing 35 years ago,” Debeuckelaere says. “Today we’ve got about 8 hectares.” These carrots are characterized by the required specifications of the final product: a long cylindrical root with a diameter between 15 and 35 mm. Also essential are an intense reddish-orange interior colour and minimal greening on the shoulders. Growth and lifting cracks are undesirable. To avoid them, Debeuckelaere and Mackelberg sow their carrots on 70 cm ridges at 1.8 million seeds per hectare. They plant two rows per ridge, about 6 or 7 cm apart. “We outsource planting to the contractor Gesquière, which has years of experience planting carrots,” Mackelberg says. “We aim for a crop rotation of 1 every 6 or 7 years.”

It might sound simple, but it’s not. “After the sowing period this year, we had to water within the week,” Mackelberg says. “Just after sowing, we had some brief heavy rainfall that caused light soil crusting. That was followed by a whole period of dry wind and 20% to 30% humidity. Without irrigation the seedlings couldn’t break through the hardened crust.”

Pre-germinated seed

Problems like these are why growers often opt for pre-germinated (B-Mox® primed) seed. “In carrots grown for the fresh market, pre-germinated seed is already standard,” Debeuckelaere says.

“Maybe we should be using it more in industrial production. After all,

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this is a crop that demands your full attention, and primed seed gives you a head start.” Since carrots need plenty of water, irrigation is vital.

But droughts are becoming more common.

“Fortunately, we’ve built large water reservoirs,” Debeuckelaere says. “But the local authority

"My father started growing carrots for slicing 35 years ago.”

Kris Debeuckelaere

From left: Kris Debeuckelaere, Katleen Mackelberg and Dirk Vanparys

should really invest in more. At the moment we’ve got enough water on the farm. For now, anyway. But we don’t know what autumn and winter will bring.

“A lot of water is necessary later on too,” he adds. “In soils with a higher pH, scab (Streptomyces scabies) can be a problem, and drought between the appearance of the 4th and 6th leaves is pivotal; that’s when carrots turn from white to orange and are at their most sensitive. Dry, hot summers can also trigger powdery mildew. Then the carrots have to start all over to grow new root hairs and foliage. So an uninterrupted supply of moisture and continuous root growth are vital for profitable cultivation.”

Additional challenges

Weed control poses another test, Debeuckelaere says. “Black nightshade and camomile cause the most trouble. Volunteer potatoes can also be a nuisance. And you’re seeing more and more mechanical weeding and band spraying in carrot cultivation.”

Greenflies also appeared in their fields at a very early stage this year, and it took two or three sprayings to get rid of them. >>

IMPERATOR AND ISTANBUL Istanbul gets its deep reddish-orange colour from crossbreeding with Imperator.

The division between the xylem and phloem is also less visible. The intense red-orange hue holds greater appeal for consumers. While Napa and Nerac are still the standards, trials with Navedo and Istanbul have yielded very positive results. Green top, outer or inner, is rare in both.

Istanbul

Istanbul

Navedo

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Sometimes, though, once you see them the damage is done, and viruses have already been transmitted. “All too often the connection isn’t made, and growers see fertilization as the solution for crops that are fading and not thriving. It’s because of the elimination of Cruiser-coated seeds. It’s a loss for the sector.”

Carrot fly

Debeuckelaere works with the research center Inagro tracking carrot fly emergence. “For more than 10 years, sticky traps on the field have been giving us a good indication of the presence of carrot flies,” he says.

“This enables us to take a more meticulous approach to treatment.

We only start treatment now if the flies are actually there. Recording has also enabled us to see annually recurring peaks. There’s definitely one between 10 and 20 October. That’s a crucial time for carrot flies’ third generation.”

All in all, then, cultivation presents its share of issues. “Using fewer chemicals increases the labour-intensive aspect,” Debeuckelaere says.

“And costs are going up, for example because of multiple treatments.

In the past five years we’ve actually had to work harder to get the same results. Meanwhile the buyer – in our case, a frozen foods processor – expects the same number of kilos. So in consultation with them, we’ve opted for the Istanbul and Navedo varieties. Navedo is a bit longer than Nerac.”

Uniformity

Philip Hoflack is well aware of the difficulties.

His grandfather Michel Hoflack put West Flanders on the vegetable industry map when he founded Horafrost in 1979. It’s one of Flanders’ largest frozen vegetable producers. The first generation to run the family business were farmers; Philip Hoflack focuses on the technical aspects while retaining an understanding of the basic product. Carrots account for about 15% of processing at Horafrost; its other main products are cauliflower, beans and peas. The company’s frozen vegetables are pure and additive-free.

“Consumers like that,” Hoflack says. “Classic orange carrots still make up the greatest volume. Consumers are highly visually oriented, so uniformity of diameter and colour is really important. And that begins at the sorting stage.

But it does vary by region. Eastern European countries, Germany, the United Kingdom, France – they’ve all got their preferences.”

The European market accounts for about 70% of Horafrost’s exports. Within that market, what will happen with Brexit is anyone’s guess. In the United States, the fluctuating dollar presents an additional issue.

“About half our customers are in retail and half in food service,” Hoflack says. “The advantage

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“Consumers are highly visually oriented, so uniformity of diameter and colour is really important.”

Philip Hoflack

is that our products have a long shelf life, up to two years if they’re stored at –18°C. Also, the end customers aren’t predetermined, as they are with canned goods. That means you have more flexibility to do things like change mixtures.” Horafrost processes large carrots, slicers and baby carrots. Sliced carrots are destined mainly for mass catering.

Fast processing

Stijn Vandelanotte oversees cultivation at Horafrost. “Carrots are the salt and pepper of industrial vegetables – they’re indispensable,” he says.

“The whole process is highly streamlined and efficient. First the carrots are lifted by contract workers. After brief storage at the farm or the company, they’re processed. First the earth is removed in a tank; then they’re washed and sorted by diameter (15–35 mm). Any carrots that are too thick (> 35 mm) are sorted out.

“Then they’re steam-peeled to loosen the skin so it can be removed cleanly with a brush roller. The next step is slicing them into discs, plain or crinkle-cut. Then they’re washed again and blanched, and quick-freezing begins. They’re taken down to –30°C. After freezing, the carrots are optically sorted to remove any that have blemishes. Then they’re sorted by size. The expected diameter range varies from customer to customer.”

The whole process is quick; carrots are turned into slices within 45 minutes. About 15 tonnes gross per hour can be processed at Horafrost.

Half the discs are smooth and half are crinkle-cut.

“The choice of variety is determined partly by the industry,” Vandelanotte says. “With carrots, an absence of green top is one of the deciding factors.”

Horafrost uses Bejo’s market-leading seeds. “Napa for early carrots, and

Nerac for standard cultivation. It’s been on the market for 20 years and offers the necessary confidence. Istanbul and Navedo are possible successors in this segment now. We hope they’ll help increase quality and yields. But when the basic product is right, you already automatically get good yields.”

A decontamination alternative?

Horafrost has also had to contend with the problems of recent years. “Weather conditions haven’t been favourable in the last two years,” Vandelanotte says. “The importance of irrigation, not only at the start but also later on, is often underestimated. We’re being confronted more and more with greenfly, carrot fly and woolly root aphids. The role crop rotation can play there shouldn’t be underestimated >>

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From left: Philip Hoflack and Stijn Vandelanotte

The quicker you see a problem, the quicker you can deal with it and limit the consequences. Cruiser treatment helped us to do that in the past, but neonicotinoids have come under heavy pressure because of the bee starvation, and we can’t expect the banned ones to be reintroduced.

The current alternative, field spraying, requires up to 10 times as much active substance, and to me as an agronomist that doesn’t seem like a sustainable solution. So we, like the growers, hope to see an affordable alternative seed treatment soon.”

He adds, “Carrot slices are mainly produced for mass catering, and that’s a highly competitive market. So to keep carrot farming viable, along with practising good crop rotation it’s important to keep innovating on the field, using new varieties that give a greater net result with the same input.

By planting productive varieties with uniform germination, better drought and disease tolerance and minimal interior green colouration, we can achieve greater field production per hectare and better quality. Varieties like Navedo and Istanbul meet these requirements.

“We’re hopeful about the future of carrot farming. And its importance has grown in our region in the past several years. The sector still poses challenges, but we’re growing along with them and continuing to search for creative solutions.”

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“The choice of variety is determined partly by the industry.”

Stijn Vandelanotte