Orto Ricci has chosen SAIS Basil

For over 20 years, SAIS Sementi has been engaged in programmes of improvement of basil variety, aimed to obtain varieties that preserve the aroma of the traditional type, combining it with the introduction of technological innovations necessary to facilitate the cultivation and to meet new agronomic needs.

 

The results achieved by SAIS in the basil market have been determined by some characteristics that distinguish the company:

 

  • closed cycle: SAIS manages all stages of seed production, which from the field to the warehouse, are subjected to strict controls of its technical departments;
  • SAIS research: all varieties are obtained from the Company Research and Development Center;
  • strong presence on the market: it allows to have a real vision of the market and its trends;
  • close collaboration with producers: for decades, SAIS sales and technicians have been dealing with producers, trying to understand agronomic needs and commercial trends and trying to provide answers.

 

 

Floating system in Orto Ricci

 

The company Orto Ricci was born 80 years ago in the province of Rome, in Anzio. Produces and sells vegetables on an area of about 40 hectares. The company, over the years, has strongly specialized in aromatic herbs, first of all basil.

Basil is grown mainly above ground, in automated glass greenhouses. The cut product is cultivated in floating system while for the production of jars is used a sub-irrigated carpet with nutrients absorbed gradually by plants.

 

Pot production in Orto Ricci

 

Orto Ricci annually produces about 100 tons of basil and 1,000,000 of pots.

Dr. Eleonora Pistelli, marketing manager of the company Orto Ricci, said: “We have tried in recent years to focus more and more on the choice of varieties: this has led to a close collaboration with SAIS, which has followed us from the beginning”.

Orto Ricci has choosen some SAIS varieties as a varietal reference for both productions, cut and pots.

 

Eleonora Pistelli, Orto Ricci marketing manager

 

“The choices are weighted on agronomic and qualitative factors, not wanting to neglect in any way the high quality standard of our products”.

“One of the SAIS varieties we have chosen is Gemini, because it tolerates well the main pathogens of basil and, from the commercial point of view, it matches our needs. The yield is high and the product is beautiful to see, very fragrant with all the aroma of basil that is what our customers are looking for”.

“Basil pots, grown on sub-irrigated carpet, are also produced with the variety Gemini. Recently we started a production project with the SAIS varieties Superbo and Gemini, with a low concentration of nickel and addition of selenium, to satisafy more and more the demands of our consumers” continues Pistelli.

 

 

Dr. Simona Toloni, SAIS product manager, says: “The cooperation with the producers, for SAIS, is very important. In our company we have a R&D department, committed in various breeding programs, in particular for tomato and basil and the comparison with those who produce and market the product is obviously the basis of our research. Orto Ricci, for us, was a great opportunity for growth and comparison: the company size, the markets distribution and a specialized staff have allowed to develop projects such as the program of resistant varieties (IR) to Peronospora belbaharii and Fusarium Oxysporum, and the cultivation trials for products with a determinated add value.

 

SAIS Basil catalogue includes a products line focused and suitable for pot production, with three different varieties and with a different development: Gecom, Gemma and Geniale. We can also add Gemini for periods of high pathogen pressure.

 

For the production of traditional SAIS offers varieties such as Superbo, the classic type “Genovese” and Gecom.