Syngenta Opens New Seed Innovation Center in the Netherlands
Center will accelerate breeding of sustainable vegetables for the world market
Swiss company Syngenta, a global top-three player in the seed breeding industry, has opened a new seed innovation center in Enkhuizen, the Netherlands. The center will make it possible to accelerate breeding of new vegetable seeds, as much as twice as fast, for the world market.
Measuring more than two hectares of greenhouses, climate cells and laboratories, the new center is Syngenta’s largest plant for vegetable seeds worldwide.
The €36 million facility was opened on 23 September by Syngenta CEO Erik Fyrwald and Jan-Kees Goet, the Secretary General of the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.
Sustainable agri/food
Fyrwald said: “In Enkhuizen we are accelerating our innovation capacity to provide growers worldwide with new, sustainable vegetables even faster. Due to the rapidly changing climate, growers need new tools to adapt to different diseases, pests and weather conditions and the most efficient use of our valuable natural resources.”
“Accelerating offering of new vegetable seeds is one of the many ways in which we support growers in this,” Fyrwald said.
Syngenta focuses in particular on improving climate resilience, strengthening disease resistance and combating food waste. It aims to improve global food security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available resources.
Seed Valley
Syngenta’s Seed Innovation Center is located in Seed Valley in the northwest of the Netherlands, the international center of plant breeding and technology. Seed Valley is home to dozens of innovative companies that develop high-quality vegetable and flower varieties for the horticulture sector. More than a third of all global trade in vegetable seeds originates in the Netherlands.
Syngenta has been an innovative player in the Dutch agri/food sector for more than 150 years. In the Netherlands, Syngenta employs more than 800 people in seven locations.
Source: Syngenta
26 September 2019