[firebaze]

Please forgive me to disagree wholeheartedly and completely. After several years of "let's check again if tomatoes from Netherlands are still bad" I have completely stopped buying them altogether. They look great, smell good, and taste absolutely bland.

Price does not make any distinction whatsoever, from my point of view. Or we only get the "cheap" stuff in all our shops here if the tomatoes are from Netherlands. And I do like to pay for good vegetables, esp. tomatoes (the ones I am buying are from Spain, locally grown or seldomly from the Balkans).

[mtts]

Sounds like you’re not in NL. I am, and for the past ten years or so new varieties of locally grown tomatoes have appeared that are markedly better. Not as good as fresh Puglian tomatoes during harvest season, but much, much better than the infamous water bombs the Netherlands is known for internationally.

Problem is, they’re somewhat expensive (or rather, not insanely cheap), and, likely for that reason, only available over locally. For some reason the rest of Europe insists on buying only the cheap flavorless water bombs.

You get what you pay for, I guess (said Puglian tomatoes, in season, aren’t cheap either).

[bryanrasmussen]

I would say the best cherry tomatoes from Netherlands are passable for cooking.

[locallost]

One note about the smell is that it could be just the green part where the fruit still is attached to, so it's easy to get deceived. Tomato plants have a strong smell themselves.