Essay About Flavr Savr Tomato And Consumer Disinterest

Calgene
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The Flavr Savr tomato was developed to have a characteristic of delayed softening. The idea was that it could ripen on the vine, develop a fuller flavour, and still be firm on arrival at the retail outlet. The problem was that the “inventors”, Calgene, appear to have been too busy with the finer points of gene manipulation to notice that handling ripe tomatoes off the vine and in transport was problematic – tomatoes are normally harvested green and hard, and allowed to ripen later. When the “Flavr Savr” tomato was being taken off the plants it got seriously bashed making the tomatoes unusable. Investment of $10 million in speciality equipment originally developed for peach handling48 hugely increased the costs and delayed the product getting to market49. This, together with consumer disinterest due to a combination of a “slightly mealy” texture and the high price50 – left Calgene running up huge losses. Further, yields were reportedly disappointing and the Flavr Savr had insufficient disease resistance51. One analyst said of this venture “this tomato has brought them to their knees – the question is, can they get back up again?”52. In the end Calgene was saved by a take-over and the board substantially changed53. Calgene, under new ownership, continues to modify the Flavr Savr so it will work commercially and agronomically. But as it says itself: “there can be no assurance that such efforts will be successful or will not be discontinued by Calgene. There can be no assurance that Calgene will be successful in developing genetically engineered tomatoes with the agronomic characteristics necessary for commercial production”54.