Olam: The Road to Market - September 2017 - 4

Olam SVI grows about a dozen varieties of
onions across a large geographic region so that
planting or harvesting takes place all year long.
splitting of the bulbs, as doubled bulbs are
not conducive to mechanical harvesting.
They also tend to collect dirt and microbes."
The company grows about a dozen varieties
of onions across a large geographic region
so that planting or harvesting takes place all
year long. The varieties are indistinguishable
to the drying and packing facilities.
In addition to its growing operations in California and three nearby drying facilities,
the company's proprietary onion expertise
comprised of seed breeding technology
and planting programs has transformed
Egyptian deserts into growing and processing communities. The stable climate of the
desert provides the ideal conditions for
growing onions. There's minimal humidity,
which reduces the chance of disease, pests
and weeds. This allows for high yield using
the fewest resources.

Virus-Free Garlic Program
Garlic is a vegetative-propagated crop, as
most garlic varieties are sterile, or without
seed. Garlic is grown by planting individual
garlic cloves, which then produce a bulb in
which the cloves all have the same genetic
makeup as the original clove. Garlic is also
very prone to infection.
"There's always the chance that the garlic
bulb can catch a virus," says Mr. Hanson.
"Garlic is like humans, if it comes down with
a virus, it's not going to perform at its best.
A virus is debilitating in terms of yield and
solids content. With the particular variety of
garlic we grow, a virus can reduce yield by
30% to 50%."
Scientists at the company's Ag Research
and Development facility work year round
to identify and grow disease-free garlic
through a process called meristemming. It



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Olam: The Road to Market - September 2017

Olam: The Road to Market - September 2017 - 1
Olam: The Road to Market - September 2017 - 2
Olam: The Road to Market - September 2017 - 3
Olam: The Road to Market - September 2017 - 4
Olam: The Road to Market - September 2017 - 5
https://www.nxtbook.com/sosland/olam/2017_09_01
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