Our team has established the Tropikalia variety in Brazil. To ensure long-term success, we are currently developing a second variety.
New varieties
Paving new ways: Watermelons
We aim to sell nine different vegetable crops by 2028. Our series starts with our first watermelon variety: Tropikalia.
“Brazil is almost like a continent in its own right,” says Eduardo Albonico, Regional Head of Sales. The country is huge, with varying tropical climatic conditions and different soil conditions. We want to gain a foothold with our watermelons here, between the rainforest and the South Atlantic coast.
The name of the new variety, which has been on the market since 2024, also has a tropical feel to it: Tropikalia. This is an important milestone in our Strategic Planning 2035. By 2028, we aim to sell at least one variety in each of the nine crops in our vegetable division.
Just as the fruit grows under good conditions, so too does the team and its responsibilities in Brazil. Breeder Antônio Marcos Diniz Campos initially worked solely for the Brazilian market, but his activities now also include Mexico, Türkiye and other markets. The team manages all activities for South America from Brazil – and is far flung geographically: While Eduardo works at the main location in Campinas near São Paulo, Antônio and his team carry out breeding in Uberlândia, more than 600 kilometers away. “That means good, open and transparent collaboration is a must,” says Eduardo.
“That means good, open and transparent collaboration is a must.”
Eduardo Albonico
Challenges in Brazil
One key advantage of Brazil’s diverse climate zones is that breeding can run up to four cycles per year, significantly accelerating the overall breeding process. Watermelons are divided into diploid varieties (with seeds) and triploid varieties (without seeds). Antônio works mainly on triploid seedless breeding and also on diploid. Breeding diploids is faster, which is why our first variety is the diploid Tropikalia. His focus is on the All Sweet and the Crimson Sweet types, the typical striped ones found in many countries around the world.
Putting Tropikalia on the market was something special: There were no protocols or processes that Antonio and his team could rely on. The strong experience of our team made the difference: In July 2020, the first germplasm was collected, and in February 2022 the team was already able to select the first hybrids – an incredibly fast pace. “KWS trusted that we were doing the right thing,” says Antônio. “Einbeck’s molecular marker technology helped us greatly in determining the homozygosity of the parent lines. This saved us an entire cycle in some cases.”
Thanks to close cooperation between breeding, sales and the resultant product management team, Tropikalia was launched just four years after the project commenced. “Even in rainy conditions or on cold nights, the fruit grows well and has a beautiful, smooth surface,” adds Antônio. “That’s important for marketing.”
Nevertheless, long-term success depends on many other factors: If the weekly price for watermelons is good, Tropikalia sells very well because all the fruit ripens at once. But if the price falls, growers want to harvest their fruit gradually – and then things become more difficult for our watermelon. That’s why the team in Brazil is already working on a second variety to complement Tropikalia. “The market in Brazil is very competitive,” says Antônio.
Field Days in Estrela do Norte (Brazil)
Successful on the market
Successfully marketing our watermelons in the hot spots in Brazil is therefore the goal of Suelen Arantes and her colleagues. Brazil is divided into different zones for product development, with Suelen being responsible for watermelons and melons. Uberlândia is a good starting point for this, as the city is located between the two main marketing regions (West of São Paulo and Goiás state) for Crimson Sweet varieties like Tropikalia. In combination with a new variety, our watermelon can capture an even bigger market share here and also west of São Paulo, Suelen believes. “Our team is pretty small given the size of Brazil. But we work together so well, think about topics in a new light and make things possible – just like true Freshplorers,” she adds with a smile.
The varying weather conditions in Brazil make breeding a variety especially challenging. That’s why a diverse portfolio is needed here. In addition, watermelon has to compete with other crops such as sugar cane in popular cultivation regions. Consequently, the shape of the fruit and its associated transportability play a major role – to ensure it can easily get to its destination, even from distant fields. The European export market presents another significant opportunity for watermelons, even though consumers there tend to favor seedless varieties.
Now everyone is working on the second variety to complement Tropikalia and to offer our customers more choice. “Eduardo once asked me if I was proud of having developed Tropikalia,” says Antônio. “I replied: No. Because it’s one thing to develop a variety, but another to ensure its continued success in the market. I keep working to accomplish that.”
Alberto de Marcos Serrano is working in Spain on his first proprietary seedless watermelon varieties.
Watermelons: Popular in warm regions
While Tropikalia is already on the market in Brazil, Alberto de Marcos Serrano and his team in Spain are working at full speed to bring their first commercial watermelon variety to growers.
“This year is a crucial one for us,” Alberto says. “We’re running trials to see whether our varieties can compete in the market – and so far, the feedback has been very encouraging.” If the results continue to look promising, additional markets will follow.
In Spain, seedless varieties such as Tiger Striped and Sugar Baby are especially popular. “The challenge is that they don’t produce pollen themselves,” Alberto explains. “This means seedless plants cannot make fruit on their own. They need another watermelon plant nearby that produces pollen so fertilization can occur.” Without pollen, the watermelon will not grow. To trigger pollination, Spanish growers rely on microseeded varieties – small watermelons with tiny seeds. The resultant “mini seedless” types, which could gain traction in the coming years, are also small and completely seedless. One next potential step could be the launch of a microseeded variety in Spain in the coming years.
Microseeded varieties could also emerge as an opportunity for the Brazilian market in the future, prompting Alberto and Antonio to cross and test several of their lines. The material is showing strong potential – “a great opportunity to work even more closely together,” Alberto adds with a smile. |
© KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA 2026
