Sweets? Vegetables!

The IPM international plant fair and sweets - how does that work? By taking a closer look. Anyone passing by the stand held by German cultivator Volmary and stopping at their Candy-Bar would have noticed at the latest when helping themselves: the produce, piled up and ready to eat so temptingly and candy-coloured, were not sweets or chocolates, but - vegetables, low in calories and rich in vitamins.
But the Candy-Bar wasn't just there to build up the heath of IPM visitors, it is in fact a garden retail concept in which five varieties of vegetables are being offered: three tomatoes, one mini cucumber and a mini pepper. What they have in common is that their fruits are as small as chocolates, sweeter than many other varieties and rather crunchy.
Overall they present quite a colourful picture: next to the little green cucumbers, the cherry tomatoes stand out in not only red, but also in yellow, orange and pink, one variety is even chocolatey brown. And the fruits of the snack pepper are red, yellow or orange.
"The trend to urban gardening is a real benefit to us," explains head of marketing Raimund Schnecking, who promotes the Candy-Bar together with concept manager Stefanie Stärk. They have combined the snack vegetables, which are particularly suitable for the balcony, into one concept.
In addition, the concept has redesigned target groups: "Traditional vegetable products are bought by men," explains Schnecking. "The new vegetable buyers are women who want to enjoy their balcony boxes."

And these are the five Candy-Bar varieties:
The pearl tomato "Tomberry", probably "the smallest tomato in the world," as Schnecking explains: the plant forms hundreds of sugary-sweet and crunchy fruits.The nectar cherry tomato "Solena Sweet": its fruits have a particularly high Brix-value (which measures the sugar content in fruit and vegetables).The plum-shaped cherry tomato "Mirado": the provider describes them as "tomato chocolates". The roughly plum-sized fruits have an intensive tomato aroma.The mini snack cucumber "Mini Starts": its fruits remain small which makes them particularly tender and very juicy.The snack pepper "Lubega": highly aromatic is how the fruits are described. But what really makes them a snack vegetable: they only carry their seeds in…