Bejo Magazine - INT - 2018/2019

Bejo magazine 2018/2019

Exploring nature never stops

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page 16

page 20

The real breeding happens in the field

Developing resistant varieties

Test stations around the world

Contents Bejo magazine

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Bejo magazine

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Foreword: Exploring nature never stops

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Exploring since...

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Bejo conducts trials around the globe

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Open Days 2018

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Bejo introduces a sustainable new seed coating

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The real breeding happens in the field

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At Bejo, seed production is a dynamic process

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Did you know...

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Exploring natural resistance never stops

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Our test stations around the world

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Bees and Bejo: natural partners in seed production

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‘I sit down at the table with customers as an entrepreneur’

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Quality control is of vital importance

Photography Design in Beeld Petra Tesselaar Karina Hens Dirk Vanparys Bejo Australië, Argentinië, Verenigde Staten, China, Guatemala, India, Italië, Polen, Spanje, Turkije, Vietnam

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The journey of an onion seed

Design Nathalie España

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Focusing on leeks, fennel and family

Layout JEEN communicatie

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Thinking differently about cultivation

Printer Badoux

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For growers in developing regions, knowledge is key

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B-Mox seed enrichment formula

No rights can be derived from the information provided in this magazine. Partial or full reproduction of articles is not permitted without express permission from Bejo Zaden B.V. and source attribution.

Bejo magazine is published

by Bejo Zaden B.V. PO Box 50 1749 ZH Warmenhuizen T: 0226 396 162 F: 0226 393 504 E: bejonl@bejo.nl W: www.bejo.nl Editor-in-chief Karina Hens Editorial team Robert Schilder Mirjam Both Corina Huiberts Karina Hens Writers Robert Schilder Jelger van Weydom Karina Hens Mirjam Both Jeroen Vissers JEEN

FOREWORD

Exploring nature never stops Dear Partner, Welcome to this issue of Bejo’s corporate magazine. This time, we aren’t focusing on one particular crop, such as carrots or brassicas, but instead providing some insight into what goes on behind the scenes at our company. We’ll show you the journey travelled by a seed and all the steps that go into bringing you the right varieties of seed with the necessary treatment in the desired packaging – right on time.

Bejo is a family business with a down-to-earth mentality. Our people like visiting you to view your fields, exchange thoughts about our varieties, and philosophize about the needs of the market today and in 10 years’ time. We deeply value direct contact with growers and strive to provide you with customised advice.

We invest in training our employees, and they love sharing their knowledge with you. Just like your business, our sales team moves with the market. Our crop consultants worked on a regional basis in the past, but today they operate mainly at the level of individual crops. This allows them to specialize even more precisely, so we can provide you with the premium quality you need and we can achieve great results together.

Bejo is a company that puts its customers – direct and indirect – at the heart of things.

We always think about what changes to our organisation will mean for you. Often, they result from changes in the law. These are becoming increasingly frequent, especially with regard to available options around breeding and seed treatment. Examples include the 2018 withdrawal from sale of the insecticide Cruiser, used to control carrot fly, and the withdrawal

by March 2019 of the insecticide Mundial, used to prevent onion fly. Many fungicides are also currently the subject of debate or have already been taken off the market.

These developments mean it will be a challenge for us to continue providing you with seeds that are disease-free and minimize your risk of expensive crop failures. Bejo is researching and developing more and more non-chemical seed treatments, and we are a market leader in this area. Examples include our internally developed hot water, steam vacuum and hot air treatments.

These methods allow us to provide crop-specific and variety-specific seed treatments suitable for organic and conventional crops. We have also developed the seed enrichment formula B-Mox. Its benefits include better seedling growth, a stronger root system and improved uniformity and storage quality.

The 2018 season saw extreme weather conditions that forced you to do everything you could to ensure decent yields of highquality produce. In early spring you dealt with flooding, followed by drought and extreme heat in summer. In many cases, you nevertheless managed to grow amazingly healthy and attractive produce that delighted consumers.

Under the circumstances, that’s an achievement you can be incredibly proud of. The future will continue to challenge us, and that’s why we make research a priority. At Bejo, exploring nature never stops.

As specialists in the field, we’re committed to helping you build a healthy future for your business. We wish you all the success in the world!

Robert Schilder Salesmanager Benelux en Scandinavië

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Exploring since...

1899 JACOB JONG BECOMES A PIONEER IN THE SEED TRADE

1912 COR BEEMSTERBOER BAKER’S SON ENTERS THE SEED BUSINESS

EXPANSION BEJO ADDS EUROPEAN OFFICES

80s

1978 MERGER AFTER WORKING TOGETHER ON BREEDING TECHNIQUES AND HYBRIDISATION, BEEMSTERBOER AND JONG UNITE TO FORM BEJO ZADEN

90s RISE OF MARKER TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH

1997 SKAL CERTIFICATION

INTRODUCTION OF NON-CHEMICAL SEED TREATMENT: HOT WATER METHOD

1998

FOR ORGANIC SEEDS

2015 2017

LETTUCE JOINS THE BEJO ASSORTMENT

BEJO REGISTERS OLIVER, ITS FIRST TPS (TRUE POTATO SEED)

2017 BEE BREEDING TAKES FLIGHT

today BEJO EXPANDS ITS HQ IN WARMENHUIZEN, ADDING A 10,000M2 SEED STORE AND A RESEARCH LAB

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TRIALS

Bejo conducts trials around the globe Bejo’s breeders work closely with growers, processors and supermarkets to bring new varieties to market. It takes an average of 8 to 10 years for a variety to achieve commercial viability. “Out of the thousands of hybrids we create, only a few make it through,” says Benelux and Scandinavia sales manager Robert Schilder. “We look for the most robust varieties, the ones with added value.”

Bejo has set up breeding stations in every climate zone. “We think it’s best to breed in the area where a crop grows,” Schilder says.

“Varieties are robust when they’re able to thrive under a wide range of conditions.

That means, among other things, that they can withstand stress and have a strong root system and natural resistance to insects and disease.

And taste also plays an important role.”

Genetics

To produce a desirable cultivar, a breeder tries to breed in good genetics using new and existing parent lines. Every hybrid created is tested in a screening trial (the initial selection phase) and a continuing research trial . A positive selection is made, and the lines and hybrids that meet our criteria proceed to the next stage of the breeding process and ultimately enter the world as commercial varieties. Lines and hybrids that fall short multiple times are dropped and removed from the process. “Depending on quality, we allot a minimum of 3 years for these trials in order to gather enough data,” Schilder says. “Our trials are spread all across the world. We want to have data from every climate zone.”

Trials with growers

If a new hybrid does well in multiple locations across different years, we assign it a Bejo number. Then we start doing small trials with growers. “We often work with biennial crops, such as carrots, onions, beetroot, cabbage and celeriac,” the sales manager explains.

“They don’t shoot, flower and produce seeds until the second year. So it takes longer than with annual crops, like lettuce, endive and spinach. Those produce seed in the first year.

When seed production is at the right level for doing larger trials, we scale up. In the trial, we look at how the variety performs for the grower in terms of cultivation, lifting, storage and processing. We know a lot about our parent lines, and we know where to position a new variety and the added value it brings, but in the real world you sometimes run into surprises.

That’s why we thoroughly test every variety before we put it on the market.”

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From 25 to 29 September 2018, the annual Bejo Open Days took place in and around our headquarters in Warmenhuizen.

Growers from all over the world

Bejo Open Days

travelled to the Netherlands to discover new varieties and share market knowledge. On these pages you can get a visual impression of the event.

The welcome tent served as the entrance to the Open Days site.

Guests got acquainted with new varieties in the demo fields.

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Visitors could choose between the seed quality tour and a tour of the research center.

OPEN DAYS

In the cooking demonstration, guests were treated to healthy, tasty snacks.

We showcased new varieties and concepts in the product tent.

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Visitors met our beekeepers and learned about the role the bees play.

This year, Bejo hosted a symposium on Brussels sprouts and another specially for plant growers.

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The machinery show is a longtime fixture of the Bejo Open Days.

SEED COATING

Bejo introduces a sustainable new seed coating Innovation at Bejo takes place in multiple arenas, not least in the field of state-of-the-art cleaning and processing methods. Using the latest equipment and taking advantage of new technologies, we make sure only the best seeds make their way to our customers. One of the most recent advances in this area is our introduction of a new, sustainable coating.

Coating gives seeds a smoother surface, improving ease of sowing. And added colour makes them easier to see in the soil. So the quality of coating is important for growers.

Bejo searched the market for a more sustainable type of coating and ended up with a formula comprised of natural ingredients. That means it completely breaks down in the soil. The new coating also has a much shorter drying time – 5 minutes instead of 15. This helps to preserve the vitality of the seed. It also cuts energy use, lightening the burden on the environment.

Depending on local laws and regulations, active substances can be added to the coating to help protect the seed in the first stage of life.

We will introduce the new coating in stages and have already used it on beetroot seeds.

After an extensive testing phase, we’ll implement it for other crops, starting with carrots, onions and spinach.

The coating liquid is fully accredited by Skal and is on the organisation’s list of products permitted for use in organic agriculture. We’re preparing to apply the new coating to our organic assortment and expect to do so from September 2019. Our organic seeds will ultimately boast their own distinctive colour.

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Bejo’s Bert Janssen looks for new varieties

‘ The real breeding happens in the field’ “Breeding is about looking ahead,” says Bert Janssen, a breeder for Bejo.

“What are the trends in the market going to be, what’s happening with laws and regulations, and what do growers want?

The job is extremely diverse. We analyze data in the office, talk to the sales team, set up new trials and do fundamental research. No two days are the same.

That’s what’s great about this job.”

Anyone who thinks breeders spend most of their time in the lab developing new varieties, then, is off the mark. The real breeding happens in the field, Janssen stresses. “Our profession is quite an old-fashioned one. Every selection we make, we do it in the field. From May to Christmas, we’re walking around outside in our wellies and rain gear, evaluating trials and making selections. Outdoors, you see the differences between varieties – how do the plants react to the climate, insects, diseases? How much does a cabbage weigh, what’s its interior quality like, and which diseases are showing up in the leaves?

All these aspects come into play in selecting the best varieties.”

Robust crops

“One trend in breeding is to create more robust crops in the various climate areas,” the breeder says. “The challenge is to achieve a combination of robustness and quality.

You try to create varieties that will be sturdy by breeding in resistance or tolerance to diseases and pests, and ones that can cope with variable climate conditions. But you also have to take

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BREEDING

growers’ and consumers’ wishes into account.

Growers want quality and uniformity. And consumers want attractive, tasty produce in the supermarket.”

The breeders stay in close contact with Bejo’s sales team. The salespeople are their eyes and ears in the market, Janssen says. “They know what the trends are and get feedback from growers, distributors and supermarkets and hear where there’s room for improvement.

The market is a huge determining factor for breeders, and it’s extremely diverse. In Eastern Europe there’s a big market for early crops. In Western Europe people want things like hard cabbages for long storage. In Central America, they grow a cabbage that’s harvested with the outer leaves on to protect the produce from damage during transport.”

Developing new varieties

chemicals as before. Many of them are taking the initiative now rather than waiting for laws to change. “It takes years of research to breed in disease resistance,” Janssen says. “Bejo sells hybrid varieties. A hybrid variety is produced from a paternal and a maternal line.

First, we try to develop the ideal father and mother lines, in response to market demand.

It’s usually done via the traditional method of making selections in the field, but today we also have access to techniques like microspore culture and marker technology that can accelerate the process by several years.”

From left: Researcher Miranda Ruiter, breeder Jan Sybe Wijngaarden, breeder Bert Janssen and researcher Jan-Dick Ligthart

EXPLORING NATURE NEVER STOPS FOR BERT JANSSEN “IT TAKES YEARS OF RESEARCH TO BREED IN DISEASE RESISTANCE”

No breeder, though, has a crystal ball to predict what the market’s demands will be in the future, Janssen adds. “So it’s important to create a broad genetic pool, so we’ll have plenty of options for responding to those future demands.”

Janssen is seeing strong demand in the market for disease- and pest-resistant varieties, since growers nowadays don’t want – and aren’t permitted – to use as many crop protection

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At Bejo, seed production is a dynamic process

We take it for granted that growers have all the best varieties of seed at their disposal.

Bejo develops those varieties and also produces the seeds. All the vagaries of nature that growers have to cope with are issues for us too. So how do we make sure there’s always plenty of seed on hand?

Worldwide, Bejo’s production area totals a few thousand hectares. Within the company, we divide the world into 3 sections: 1. Europe and Africa, 2. Asia and South America (including fruit crops), and 3. Australia, New Zealand and North America. As an area production manager, Wil Jorink is responsible for production and logistics in Europe and Africa. “In our production planning, we have to think ahead,” he says.

“We have to ensure sufficient supply. We can only increase sales if the product is there.

Growing from seed to seed takes at least 2 seasons. To be able to accurately estimate the required production, it’s important that the Sales, Breeding & Research, and Production departments work together as well as possible.

And at Bejo they definitely do.”

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Spreading risk

To ensure we can produce enough seeds, it’s important to distribute risks across climate zones. That means spreading out production, depending on individual crops and their characteristics. “We always produce in at least 2 locations,” Jorink says. “With bad harvests, the main culprits are weather and water.

Distributing production allows us to offset local crop failures.” That takes land, and as Bejo continues to grow, it needs more and more property. “We produce in house, on land we own and rent. But in certain countries there are growers who handle all our production.

The division isn’t set in stone – it’s a dynamic process.”

An ongoing task

So far, we’ve always succeeded in finding suitable new land for seed production. But it isn’t always easy, Jorink says. The search for additional sites is an ongoing process. With each new area, Bejo first determines which varieties are appropriate for growing there. To do this, it puts multiple varieties through different trials.

These flowering trials reveal whether the soil and climate suit the plants. The next step is to organize logistics, and agreements with local governments play a key role here. Finally, the growers have to get to grips with cultivation.

EXPLORING NATURE NEVER STOPS FOR WIL JORINK

“The human factor is very important,” the production manager says. “You have to be able to respond to the whims of nature.”

Indoor production

Why doesn’t Bejo just grow everything in greenhouses to take extreme weather out of the equation? “Growing quality seed is cheaper outdoors than indoors,” Jorink explains.

“When there’s a certain disease pressure or you’re growing seeds for sowing, you have to go indoors, but some segments have to grow outdoors because of the vast areas they need – for instance, some brassicas, onions and carrots. The share of indoor production has doubled in the past few years, but it remains limited.”

Diverse varieties

Bejo works with varieties that require vast production areas, but also with plenty of smaller crops, such as parsley and fennel bulbs. With such diversity, how do we make sure we can always achieve the necessary production levels? “With production, we actually work on the principle ‘You ask for it, we grow it,’” Jorink explains. “We try to make sure we pay enough attention to all the varieties by working in multiple crop groups.

Sales makes what are known as 5-year

forecasts. In other words, they tell us what they think they’ll be able to sell in the next 5 years. And we use that as a guideline. We meet several times a year to coordinate our activities.”

“THE SEARCH FOR NEW PRODUCTION SITES IS AN ONGOING PROCESS

Going to extremes

Jorink says. “Breeders like to take things to extremes. The more hybridization you do, the more fantastic things you can come up with.

But the flowering season, for example, is a tense time. The paternal and maternal plants need to flower simultaneously, and it’s quite a challenge to coordinate that. It’s an elite sport.”

Organic production

Producing enough organic seed, meanwhile, is a unique sport, and an important one for Bejo.

By 2035, governments expect all organic crops to be grown from organic seed. So far, not all of them have to meet that requirement. It’s an ambitious milestone, Jorink says, but not an unrealistic one. “For a large number of crops, we’re definitely on the right track, but for a few key ones, big challenges still remain. Organic seed production is all about finding equilibrium and balance. In outdoor cultivation of biennial crops, the chance of failure is high. But we’re making huge strides, and organic seed has fantastic potential.”

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Did you know...

... Bejo has been offering organic seeds for more

... 400 students have graduated from Bejo’s school

than 20 years? Today,

in Guatemala? Bejo founded the school to educate

our Organic assortment

underprivileged children of smallholder farmers.

boasts 40 crops and 150 varieties.

... Bejo has more than 1,700 employees around the world?

... the annual Bejo Open Days draw visitors from all over the globe? In 2018, we welcomed ... onions, cabbage

guests from 77 countries from Guatemala to

and tomatoes are

Australia.

the most frequently eaten vegetables in the world?

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IN BRIEF

... the name Bejo is derived from the names Beemsterboer and Jong? Bejo was founded in 1978 and celebrated its 40th birthday in 2018!

... Bejo’s Cumulus asparagus variety has been named the tastiest in Brabant province 7 times in a row?

... we perform more than 95,000 seed quality tests each year? We receive an average of 4,000 lots of seed annually – that’s around 2,500 tonnes. ... Erasmus purple asparagus seeds sell for about €12,500 a kilogram? The price of

... Bejo has more than 10,000 bee colonies around the world? Each one contains between 20,000 and 40,000 insects. Bees love leeks and onions.

gold currently stands at €34,560 a kilogram.

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Exploring natural resistance in vegetable crops never stops The most sustainable way to prevent diseases and pests in vegetable cultivation is to develop varieties that are resistant.

Developing a new variety used to take more than twenty years, but thanks to new technologies, such as tissue culture, marker technology and bioinformatics, we can reduce that period to just four to eight years.

All around the world, vegetable growers provide healthy and tasty products that meet the requirements of the consumer. These professionals are used to working with the possibilities and challenges that nature offers them. An important part of their work is to prevent diseases and pests. Sometimes a pesticide is necessary to keep a crop healthy, but growers prefer to use chemicals as little as possible. Treatment often demands energy from the plant and involves costs. Moreover, there are diseases and pests for which no pesticides are available at all, like clubroot (Plasmodiophora brassicae), a soil-borne pathogen that can

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cause serious damage to brassicas, such as cabbage crops.

Natural resistance

Nature often provides the solution. Some plants have a natural resistance to fungal or bacterial infections and some can even defend themselves against pests. From these useful, inherited characteristics, breeders can make a selection and develop varieties that have acquired these resistance characteristics. Bejo has already developed varieties using these techniques, such as red cabbage, pak choi, Chinese cabbage, white cabbage and cauliflower, that are resistant to

RESISTANCE

certain strains (physios) of clubroot. Traditional breeding is a process of selecting plants with the desired characteristics and cross-breeding them over many generations. It generally takes approximately twenty years before a new variety is ready to be introduced to the market using this classic method. Modern breeding companies can do this much faster thanks to ‘life sciences’, such as tissue culture, the use of DNA markers and bioinformatics, resulting in a reduced time frame of just four to eight years – depending on the variety.

Start in the field

How does this work in practice? Bejo begins in the field where our representatives visit vegetable growers on a daily basis. They are the first to notice an outbreak of a specific plant disease, e.g. a fungus, in a region. If a structural cultivation problem arises, this could be an opportunity for Bejo to start a disease resistance breeding programme. It is important when breeding for resistance to know the pathogen and the variant (physio) concerned. For example, of the previously mentioned clubroot there are at least nine known physios. These variants are often specific to certain regions or climates.

Breeding for resistance starts by identifying the cause, and our researchers do that in the Phytopathology & Content Analysis department.

They isolate the pathogen which is then cultured to reproduce it. This results in a so-called isolate which is then used to carry out a ‘disease test’. In other words: they infect a population of

plants. Any plants that remain healthy are selected by our breeders as the basis for a resistant variety.

Marker technology and bioinformatics

In modern breeding, we also research plant DNA. We are mainly interested in pieces of DNA that are typical of a certain characteristic, the so-called DNA markers. As soon as our Marker Technology & Genomics department is aware of the marker for the relevant resistance, a disease test is no longer required. This means we can select much faster, gaining a year in the process.

Our researchers only need a few plant cells to produce a DNA profile in order to determine whether a plant has the desired characteristics.

This can be carried out when the plant is still very small, which also saves us a lot of time.

Thanks to so-called bioinformatics, we can research multiple resistances simultaneously.

Our breeders use selective marker tests to analyse a population of plants for resistance and then conduct further research on the strongest.

The DNA tests also enable the ‘stacking’ of resistances, or breeding for resistance to three different disease pathogens at the same time, for example. By using automation and robotisation our researchers can process samples in large quantities and analyse complex connections.

Tissue culture and embryo rescue

In order to have the next generation of plants in a short period of time, we use tissue culture and embryo rescue in our Tissue Culture & Cell Biology department. Through these techniques >>

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>> we can propagate a selected plant or accelerate its uniformity. Moreover, we can increase the chances of success of a unique cross-bred plant by using techniques from cell biology. Old varieties or wild varieties may have interesting resistance characteristics, but sometimes they are difficult to cross with common varieties used by vegetable growers. In many cases, it appears that the fertilisation is successful, but often the seed of such a combination is not strong enough to germinate and grow into a healthy plant.

Sometimes it is possible to cultivate the seed of a unique cross-bred plant under laboratory conditions and the plant produced from this seed is then cross-bred with quality lines.

After cross-breeding and selecting for a number of generations, a new variety can emerge with the unique characteristic of the wild variety and with seed that is capable of germinating.

Bejo has developed new onion varieties that are resistant to downy mildew, such as Hylander and Powell, based on a cross-bred wild onion.

If, after selection, it appears that a crossbred plant has potential, it is then extensively tested: we want to know how such a potential new variety copes in natural circumstances.

Bejo assesses this first in its own fields, often in different places around the world. We then carry out practical tests at our customers. Only when it has become clear in practice that a new variety has added value do we start production for the introduction of the seeds as a commercial variety.

Resistance breeding never stops

The development of new vegetable varieties that are resistant to diseases and pests never stops.

In the field, pathogens can adapt to resistant crops, which can eventually affect the plant.

The resistance is then broken down and the

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breeders and researchers have to start all over again. It’s an arms race. Furthermore, every area in the world requires different resistances.

A white cabbage in early spring, for example, can perform well in Eastern Europe, while the same variety in the humid tropical climate of Asia is sensitive to the Xanthomonas bacteria.

Insects

Variable conditions in cultivation and changing regulations can also have an impact on the demand for resistant varieties. A ban on a pesticide used against insects often results in a change in disease levels. Damage caused by the cabbage fly can increase the effect of secondary bacterial or fungal infections. The possibility of making plants resistant to insects through breeding is a new and promising development, and one which we pay a lot of attention to.

Sustainable cultivation methods

At Bejo we believe that our scarce natural resources deserve protection so that we can continue to harvest, not only now but also in fifty years’ time. Therefore, the development of resistant varieties is essential. In our Research Centre in Warmenhuizen, the Netherlands, we are constantly looking for ways to further improve breeding methods. Our breeders and researchers work closely together with experts at various universities and during field trials.

Bejo invests in innovative life sciences, but the basis is and remains natural breeding. We stay close to nature - there is still a lot to discover there. Exploring Nature Never Stops.

DEVELOPMENT OF RESISTANT Development of VEGETABLE resistant VARIETIES vegetable

varieties

Resistance breeding starts with a disease test. We expose the plants to an infection and continue with the plants that stay healthy.

Once we have resistant material, this is followed by a process of many generations of selecting, pollinating and extracting seed, until we have uniform lines with the right properties. Without the use of modern technologies, this process can take 10 to 15 years.

Modern technology provides additional possibilities.

Marker Technology Once we know which gene is responsible for the disease resistance, we can test plants using DNA analysis instead of the disease test.

Cross-Breeding Distant Relatives

Tissue Culture

In our laboratory we can cross-breed distant relatives.

This enables us to exploit the resistance properties of wild variants, for example.

Through tissue culture, we can accelerate the seeding, cultivating, pollinating, selecting and seed-cultivating process.

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Our test stations around the world The whole process of breeding a new variety and bringing the seed to market takes 10 to 15 years. At our breeding stations, we cross maternal and paternal lines. Then we extensively trial the resulting products at test stations around the world under diverse climate conditions. We also conduct various small tests in external fields.

Bejo develops varieties for local and regional markets. We select breeding lines and varieties to fit local conditions, such as climate and day length. We also select ones that suit local circumstances with regard to fertilization, pest control and irrigation.

On these pages, you can see where Bejo’s breeding and test stations are located.

The Netherlands: Warmenhuizen and surrounding region Research center, breeding stations and test stations.

Almost the full assortment of open field crops, except leeks, asparagus, radishes, courgettes and lettuce.

USA Breeding stations Geneva, New York test station: mainly brassicas, onions and carrots. Idaho breeding station: carrot. Arvin breeding station, Bakersfield, Calif.: mainly onions, carrots, asparagus and tomatoes.

Spain Test stations.

Brassicas, carrots, onions, asparagus, cucumbers, gherkins and lettuce.

Guatemala Breeding stations Salama Farm: tomatoes, peppers. Paramos Farm: open field crops, such as carrots, beetroot, radishes, brassicas, onions, chicory and lettuce.

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Argentina Breeding stations.

Onions and garlic.

Italy Breeding stations.

Chicory, fennel, onions, garlic, brassicas, carrots and courgettes.

Research centers + breeding stations + test stations

Breeding stations

Test stations

The Netherlands: Noord-Scharwoude and surrounding region Breeding stations and test stations.

Poland Breeding stations.

Gherkins.

The Netherlands: Kessel and Breda Breeding stations.

Leeks, asparagus, radishes, lettuce and courgettes.

China Test stations.

Mainly carrots, onions, brassicas, tomatoes, peppers and watermelon.

Vietnam Hanoi area test station: mainly brassicas, carrots, onions, shallots, peppers, tomatoes and lettuce. La Nam breeding station: brassicas, onions and shallots.

Turkey Breeding stations.

Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

India Breeding stations.

Onions, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, melons, watermelon.

Australia Breeding stations.

Onions.

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Bees and Bejo: natural partners in seed production Bejo is an international producer of vegetable seeds. Honey bees are perhaps our most important employees. We keep our own bees and are internationally active in bee breeding and research. Alongside better vegetable varieties, we also work to improve bee colonies.

Bees play an important role in the fertilization of plants, including food crops. For a plant to bear fruit or form seeds, the (male) pollen must first make its way to the (female) pistil of the flower. Some types of plants, such as red beet and spinach, are pollinated by the wind. Others, such as lettuce, are self-pollinating. But many of the plants that are essential for our food supply rely on insects for pollination.

Honey bees: pollination champions

Nature provides plenty of pollinators, including bumblebees and solitary wild bees. But honey bees are pollination champions. They can be so effective because they can be used purposefully and in large numbers. Each hive that a beekeeper places in a field contains a colony of some 20,000 to 40,000 pollinators. Not surprisingly, fruit growers and growers of some fruit vegetables and open field crops work closely with professional beekeepers. Bejo’s core business makes us uniquely aware of the importance of bees: without pollination, there would be no seeds. We grow seeds in greenhouses and on fields all over the world, so we have tens of thousands of honey bee colonies working for us. “At Bejo we have our own beekeepers and are active in bee research.

That way we can gain more experience with

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beekeeping and a greater understanding of bees and pollination,” says Youri Draaijer, Coordinator of international seed production research at Bejo. “With our research we hope to find out more about the typical characteristics of bee colonies and bee types, including foraging zeal, or the willingness to collect nectar, and tendency to swarm, or leave the hive. But the main focus of our research is bee health.”

Research and selection to improve bee health

Worldwide, there is an urgent need for more expertise and new developments in this area.

This is partly because healthy bees are the best pollinators, and partly because in the past century bee populations have been declining due to bee mortality. The decline in numbers has various causes. One of the biggest problems for the western honey bee is the varroa mite, a parasite that infests hives and weakens or kills bees. Bees can also die of exhaustion in colonies that work too hard, a situation known as winter loss. Pesticides are also mentioned as a possible cause of population decline.

Feeding and selection

In our research we look for ways to use food and better beekeeping techniques to develop stronger bee colonies. We are also making progress in selecting bees with the desired characteristics to start new colonies. Our core activity is the selection and breeding of plants

BEES

in order to achieve better varieties. We have the same goal with bees. We breed bee colonies and seek to develop types that perform well and thrive.

Unique position in international beekeeping community

A large part of our research is concentrated at Bejo France, which works closely with the apiaries of Bejo in the Netherlands. In addition there are programs operating in other countries where we grow our seeds. In New Zealand Bejo works with Midlands, a large seed production specialist and an important Bejo partner. For seed production alone, Midlands uses some 3,500 active hives. In Australia we are setting up our own apiaries. In this region the limited availability of bees is a challenge. In Australia and New Zealand there is greater competition for bee colonies, because high market prices are paid for certain pure honey types from specific plants and trees, such as manuka and leatherwood. We also have concrete plans to start our own apiaries in the United States, along with a research program. In the US Bejo currently works only with external professional apiaries. With its worldwide activities Bejo occupies a unique position in the international beekeeping world. This allows us to create a valuable ‘cross-pollination’ in more than one sense. We work with businesses, universities and research institutions, exchanging knowledge and experience from various parts of the world.

Within Bejo, research is coordinated in our own international Bee Group, with former director Ger Beemsterboer as driving force.

Safeguarding pollination, now and in the future

For Bejo, investing in apiculture is in the company’s own interest. “We need healthy bee colonies to safeguard natural pollination on our production fields, now and in the future,” says John-Pieter Schipper, CEO of Bejo. On the other hand, he adds, Bejo also invests in bees out of a sense of social commitment: “The key role that bees play reminds us that food production depends on nature and the environment. That confirms us in the vision that we, as a family business, have of sustainability.” Bejo values a healthy environment and sustainable use of natural resources. With that in mind, we work to discover the best ways to use natural pollination and to improve the health of our bees.

Exploring nature never stops Bejo magazine

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‘I sit down at the table with customers as an entrepeneur’ Rogér Custers’ parents were growers, so he grew up with the business. Times are changing, and he’s changing with them. At his farm in Biddinghuizen, he works to provide the market with the produce it needs today – and will in the future.

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BUSINESS: THE NETHERLANDS

EXPLORING NATURE NEVER STOPS FOR ROGÉR CUSTERS “I WORK IN A DEMANDDRIVEN WAY, AND I WANT TO KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE MARKET. IT’S IMPORTANT TO TALK TO YOUR SEED SUPPLIER.”

He has an impressive property, founded by his parents in 1968 as a traditional open field farm. When Rogér took over, being an entrepreneurial type, he decided to diversify. With an eye on the future, he wanted to grow the business. So he started a turkey farm as a sideline and began deep ploughing so he could grow more crops.

Doing things your way

Rogér’s decision to start a turkey farm – perhaps his most striking choice to an outsider’s eyes – best illustrates how he sees his profession. “The fact that starting a turkey farm is relatively complicated is what made it interesting to me,” he says. “It means others are less likely to take that step. So you’re operating in an area where you’re likely to be the only one, or at least one of the few. So you get to do things your way.”

Demand-oriented

Rogér also decided to do things his way when he made the choice to use condensation drying in his onion storage, though he knew a cheaper traditional system would work fine. “I work in a demand-driven way,” he says. “I sit down at the table with the supermarkets as an entrepreneur.

They want something? Great. I’ll give it to them. So this year my old onions were better than the new ones from Egypt. That benefits my customers.

The only way to do that is to keep moving forward.”

Good stuff

Growth isn’t one of Rogér’s ambitions; his farm’s expansion is a natural consequence of the way he does business. “I always want to be one of the best at whatever I do,” he says. “Not for myself, but because customers want the best produce. That’s why I use primed seed. And I water a crop as soon as I have the slightest suspicion it might need it. It costs more, but it’s why the customers say, ‘Custers always has good stuff. I want to work with him.”

‘Agriculture is becoming industrialized’

Does a farm have to be big to survive? Rogér doesn’t think so. “Small farms will have a place in the future,” he says. “But I don’t think you’ll make it if you stay out there with your nose in the crops the whole time. You need to know what’s going on in the market, in terms of both supply and demand.

You need to be able to respond quickly. And you need to be able to negotiate for yourself. Agriculture is becoming industrialized. As a farmer, you have to adapt and present yourself as an entrepreneur. That’s why it’s so important to talk to people like your seed supplier. I want to know firsthand what’s going on. And then I can respond to it.”

ROGÉR CUSTERS Rogér Custers farms in and around Biddinghuizen. He grows carrots, onions, chicory, spinach, cauliflower, red beetroot and sweetcorn, mainly earlies. Most of his produce is organic. He employs 3 permanent staff members and is looking for a 4th, and he also plans to hire someone to work in the office. “With the first guy I hired, I thought, Phew, how much is that going to cost? How am I ever supposed to recover the expenses? It’s about your mindset. You’ve got to stop thinking like a farmer and think 100% like an entrepreneur. Only then will you be able to give the market what it wants. Other decisions about things like hiring will flow naturally from that.”

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Richard Hoogeboom provides a glimpse inside Bejo’s routine

‘Quality control is of vital importance’ Quality control is the crucial process that provides us with insight into the quality of a batch of seed. Bejo’s germination lab conducts 40,000 germination tests a year. In these, we measure the potency of a batch of seeds under optimum conditions.

Bejo’s Seed Testing Laboratory is divided into 2 departments: Seed Analysis and Seed Health.

The Seed Analysis department determines seed quality, and the Seed Health department checks seeds for fungi, viruses and bacteria. The lab is authorized by the Naktuinbouw Authorized Laboratories system for seed testing labs.

Baseline measurement

“Different aspects of the seed are tested in the germination lab,” says Richard Hoogeboom, Seed Analysis team leader at Bejo. “As soon as a batch is harvested and received in Warmenhuizen, we take a sort of baseline measurement, looking at things like germination quality, seed health, moisture content and physical purity. We determine things like cleaning strategy on the basis of these results.”

Usable plant tests

“The usable plant tests simulate average nursery conditions where seedlings are grown from the seeds, so that analysts can assess each batch in terms of uniformity and quality,” says Hoogeboom. “The common denominators of the various testing methods are that the work is always carried out with standardized levels of irrigation, relative humidity, temperature

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regime and the same standard tools. This is done according to established protocols.

After each step in the process, the effect of the treatment is measured, among other things in terms of germinating power. Seed health is also measured before and after a treatment to determine whether a disease has gone.”

Ring tests

The NAL quality system requires that internal controls be carried out at Bejo, to check whether analysts are assessing the seedlings in the same way. These are called ring tests: every analyst carries out their own assessment of the same series of plants. So the results should come out more or less the same, says Hoogeboom. We test for germinating power and energy. During each assessment, the overall condition of the plant is considered: does it meet the criteria to be judged a normal seedling? If this is not the case, each abnormal seed is assessed in terms of abnormality. “That could be stem, cotyledon or root deviations. The number of dead, nongerminated or rotten seeds is also established.

All classifications will have a certain percentage of normal seedlings. This percentage constitutes the germination percentage.”

Objective observations

All trials are carried out under optimal conditions. Analysts do not know anything about the commercial purpose of the test, so they make objective observations, says the team leader. The type of crop determines which device is used. Bejo has the Kopenhagentafel (germination table), climate control cabinets (regulating humidity) and climate cells. “General interest in the usable plant test is rising, as well as for weed and purity tests,” says Hoogeboom.

“Legislation and regulations are becoming increasingly strict, as are internal quality standards.”

EXPLORING NATURE NEVER STOPS FOR RICHARD HOOGEBOOM “WE NEVER STOP LOOKING FOR THE BEST PROCESSES, SO THAT GROWERS HAVE QUALITY DATA TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES ON TIME.”

The NAL authorization is a very valuable quality system for Bejo and other seed companies, Hoogeboom concludes. “Because the quality of the batches is judged under the supervision of NAL, the reliability of results is guaranteed and seed companies can deliver seed batches earlier and meet the growers’ demand more quickly.”

Bejo magazine

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The journey of an onion seed Which path does a seed travel before it gets to our customers? We describe the key steps of an onion seed’s journey between its arrival at Bejo and shipment to the grower.

Onion seed is produced in South Africa, for example. There it is cleaned by the farmer for the first time.

The farmer then sends the cleaned batch to Warmenhuizen.

The batch arrives in Warmenhuizen.

Here, a sample is taken. This sample undergoes various tests.

GERMINATION HEALTH MOISTURE SEED COUNT PER GRAM PURITY GENETIC

CALIBRATION The seeds are sorted by size. The desired size for the seeds is between 2 and 2.75 mm. The fractions that are the outcome of this calibration are tested for germination.

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OK

meets standards

SEED COUNT PER GRAM GERMINATION

OK

meets standards

SEED CLEANING

CLEANING All open, double and damaged seeds are removed.

OK

SEED COUNT PER GRAM GERMINATION PURITY

meets standards SEED COUNT PER GRAM GERMINATION

HEALTH Depending on the results of the earlier health tests on the received batch, the seed is now treated with steam vacuum against diseases.

OK

meets standards

UPGRADE In this stage the seeds are sorted by density.

The various weight groups are then tested again.

Only the right fractions are allowed through.

HEALTH SEED COUNT PER GRAM GERMINATION

OK

meets standards

In the next step of the process the seed receives various treatmeants.

PRIMING

COATING

A grower can choose to have the seed pre-germinated. This process is called priming. Priming ensures faster and more uniform sprouting.

In addition, a grower can choose to have the seed coated.

There are various options: • white coating = non-chemically treated, organic seed.

• green coating = with fungicide.

• red coating = with insecticide.

The active substances in these coatings depend on national laws and regulations.

Then the seed goes to the packaging department. There are different packaging units, ranging from 1,000 to 2,500 seeds. Finally, the seed is shipped to the farmer.

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Bert Demyttenaere from Wevelgem:

Focus on leeks, fennel and family His grandparents were true pioneers in the greenhouse horticulture industry in the 1960s. Now Bert Demyttenaere, with his wife Annelies Naert, has taken over the family business from his parents. The biggest change in the way things are run?

Adding fennel to the acreage.

Pioneers

Bert, 31, and Annelies welcome us to their newly built country home in Wevelgem, West Flanders. With a brand-new warehouse on one side and well-kept farmland on the other, they have beautiful views here.

“We haven’t been working on this site for very long,” says Bert. “Our farm started on the land where my parents still live. My grandparents were true pioneers in the 1960s, when vegetable farming was relatively unknown in this region. But they were already building their first greenhouses and even used a horse and cart to plow the land in the greenhouses. They also immediately joined the REO Auction, which was opening for business just around then.”

Leek territory

Today, the family still sells its products through the auction. This limits the workload relating to administration, sales and certification. But the large range of vegetables farmed in the early years has made way nowadays for leeks and fennel. “My parents weren’t exactly crazy about the work in the greenhouses, and they slowly cut down on it. They switched to leeks and open field lettuce. When the price of lettuce went down, they shifted their focus more and more to leeks. This region is one of the most important

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BUSINESS BELGIUM

European production centers for this crop, for good reason. The soil is very suitable and we’re near the coast. That means temperatures don’t drop far below freezing point and winter damage is limited.”

New generation

About 10 years ago, Bert started working for the horticultural business of his parents, Geert and An. Passionate about technology, he wouldn’t have had any trouble finding a good job working for another company after graduating in 2007.

But that was out of the question. “I immediately decided to work at home,” Bert says. “After three years, I took over part of the company, and soon after that I married Annelies, a farmer’s daughter through and through.” She was working in a hospital’s quality department at the time.

Annelies says, “Whenever I wasn’t at my job, you could find me in the fields. But I wanted to do more. I’ve been working full-time on the farm for 4 months now, and I love it.”

New location

With the arrival of Bert and Annelies, a new generation has now dedicated itself to vegetable cultivation. As a result, the farm has also started some new ventures. Bert says, “At our original location we have quite a lot of acreage. We also still use the greenhouses, for example to propagate leek plants. But there’s not enough room for expansion, storage and cooling. That’s why we moved to the current site. We built a house and a large shed. Then we built a new cold store, and we recently invested in a sustainable leek-washing installation. It collects all the plant residues and recycles the washing water.”

From left: Annelies Naert, Bert Demyttenaere, An Vervenne, Geert Demyttenaere.

Fennel

The biggest change of all may be the addition of fennel to the farm’s repertoire. Bert says, “I was looking for an alternative to lettuce, which at that moment was fluctuating quite wildly in price. One night I saw a popular TV cook making a dish with fennel, and all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. I checked with the agricultural test center and found out that Bejo, who we’ve been working with for 15 years, had a suitable range of varieties. I converted our lettuce planter into a fennel planter myself and started with a small area. I closely follow its progress and often feed back to our regular contact at Bejo.

So everything was in place quickly and problems were dealt with immediately. Since fennel is rather hard to cut, it turned out that harvesting by hand wasn’t necessarily best. The plant is also susceptible to bolting, so when harvest time comes, it has to be done very quickly.

That’s why I also converted a leek harvester into a fennel harvester. Today we’re producing about 3 hectares of fennel. It’s a small market, and we now have a considerable share. We plant about 9 hectares of leeks, but we remain a relatively small supplier of them.”

The future

“In addition to our 2 main crops, we still have half a hectare of greenhouses,” Bert says.

“We also farm potatoes and wheat for crop rotation. Our total production covers approximately 28 hectares. We may not be a big company, but the 4 of us do everything ourselves. My 81-year-old grandfather still drives to auction, and that’s a big help. However, we know that in the long term we might have to hire some employees.” But the future of the Demyttenaere horticultural business is most certainly assured. A cheerful toddler of around 4 years old is playing in the yard, and a second child is on the way. Annelies says, “Growing up with your parents on a farm is great. Farming requires a lot of passion and perseverance.

Prices are sometimes disappointing, and environmental legislation doesn’t make things easy. You just have to keep believing in difficult times.”

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‘Thinking differently about cultivation’ Variety development and seed production for organic farming have been fully integrated into the Bejo organization from the start.

This results in a cross-fertilization that helps advance both organic and traditional breeding.

Bejo has been producing organic seed since 1996. What started with a limited number of varieties of a handful of crops has grown into a broad range in the past 22 years. Bejo’s assortment of organically produced seed now includes more than 40 crops of 150 different varieties. And those numbers just keep growing. Our most important markets are in Western Europe and North America. Bejo has now extended its organic agriculture supply in the Netherlands to include lettuce crops of the Rumours (Iceberg) and Agribel (Batavia) varieties.

Selecting suitable varieties for organic farming

“Bejo made a conscious choice to integrate the organic business as a fully fledged part of the company from the beginning,” says Bram Weijland, coordinator of Organic Affairs. This has allowed the young business unit to benefit from the seed production and breeding knowledge and expertise that Bejo has built up over the decades.

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In developing a selection of varieties suitable for organic cultivation, Bejo breeders are able to draw on the large library of varieties and lines collected over the decades.

Thinking big

Bejo’s international infrastructure is also worth its weight in gold. “As part of Bejo, we can think big,” Weijland says. “For example, in all the major countries we have organic test fields where we can make selections from the many conventional hybrids for organic farming. If you select only from organic varieties, you miss out on scale. In addition to this, the promising hybrids are tested under organic conditions over several years before being finally selected for sale.”

Scale also enables Bejo to develop innovative solutions, such as an alternative to seed coating.

“In conventional cultivation we’re used to giving the crops a protected start by applying a coating around the seed that has fungicide in it,” Weijland says. “In organic cultivation we can’t do that. Working with the University of Twente, we’ve developed a very good alternative: we now disinfect the seeds in advance, for example using a hot water treatment.”

Cross-pollination

Bejo’s organic activities benefit from the knowledge and experience the company has built up in regular cultivation. And conventional has a lot to learn from organic too, says Bart Kuin,

Hybrid varieties for an improved and uniform product Bejo is developing modern hybrid varieties for the organic market, says Organic Affairs coordinator Bram Weijland. “With these hybrid varieties we’re targeting modern professional growers who produce for the large retailers’ market. That market has more than 90 percent of the acreage.”

Hybrid varieties offer attractive benefits.

Firstly, the quality and yield per hectare is better. Secondly, uniformity in the field is important for processing, especially for mechanized weed control.

area crop manager for Western Europe and business manager for organics. “The integration of ‘breeding for organic’ leads to an interesting cross-pollination. Bejo has managed production in a certain way. And artificial fertilizer and chemical pesticides play a role. You have to do without those in organic farming. That forces you to think differently about production. Diseases and pests are harder to combat; you have to try to prevent them by managing the cultivation system differently.”

Demand for robust varieties

“This is also becoming more important in conventional crops,” says Kuin. “We’re facing restrictions on the use of fertilizers and pesticides. We’re starting to once again look more closely at the soil and the vitality of the crop. And this has consequences for variety selection. The market needs robust varieties, with good disease resistance and a strong root system to make the best use of the nutrients in the soil.” In practice, the ambitions of conventional and organic are coming closer together, says Kuin. “We want to keep our leading position. We promote sustainable cultivation with a high yield and good product quality. It all starts with the best seeds of the best varieties.”

In the 1990s, Bejo was one of the first breeders to switch to making organic a fully integrated part of their activities. As a family business, Bejo believes a sustainable approach has benefits for the long term, and we want to dedicate ourselves to it fully. We believe we must handle our natural resources with care, not only for ourselves but also for future generations.

Being a conventional breeder as well as organic one leads to some great cross-pollinations.

On the one hand, breeding for organic provides inspiration and new ideas for conventional production. On the other hand, in our organic activities we’re able to build on the knowledge, experience and infrastructure that we’ve gained over the past century. At Bejo, breeding for organic production means we use our broad genetic basis in combination with the latest technologies. Breeding for organic production also means we can develop varieties with better resistance and a high yield, we can produce highquality seeds and spark off new innovations.

With organic seed, Bejo is contributing to a sustainable production chain for healthy and tasty food, RIGHT from the START.

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1

2

For growers in developing regions: knowledge is key The horticulture sector has gone through enormous changes in the Netherlands in the last 100 years. Thanks to professionalization and specialization, the productivity of our crops has increased enormously, and they have become more sustainable, so that they are among the most secure in the world. And thanks to excellent logistic processing, they are always available quickly and in sufficient quantities.

The seed sector has contributed to this by developing varieties that are well suited to modern farming methods. This has been made possible by the availability of new breeding techniques, such as hybridization methods developed at Wageningen University. With the knowledge acquired through research, a highly specialized seed sector has developed in the Netherlands, and other sectors, such as mechanization, storage and processing have also developed into world-class players.

In developing regions, we see that such knowledge and infrastructure is often completely lacking. At Bejo, we see it as our responsibility to make our knowledge, technology and high-

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quality seed available there. This is necessary for providing the growing world population with a sufficient, affordable, reliable supply of healthy food. It’s a nice idea, of course, but how do you actually make it happen? There’s a long history of development aid, but many projects have shown only limited results. Sadly, good intentions alone aren’t enough. André Dekker, Bejo’s area business manager for Africa, says, “We believe the key to success is to support projects that fit in with the local way of working, and to look closely at the entire chain, from farmer to customer.

It makes no sense to only supply the seed. The grower has to know how to use the seed, how to cultivate the crop and harvest it in the right way, and how to store the harvest properly. And then a good infrastructure is needed to get the products to market.” Bejo is committed to a number of projects addressing all these factors.

The development of improved vegetable varieties to suit local climatic conditions is part of this.

These are long-term projects requiring large investments, and small steps are being taken with great patience, but every step is a step in the right direction.

SUSTAINABILITY

3

Africa

In cooperation with JP Beemsterboer, we’ve started a project in Senegal in which a testing and breeding station is being built. With the help of local institutes, we’re training 20 entrepreneurial farmers to cultivate highquality onions. This means an increase in the investments farmers have to make: improved seeds and better fertilizers are often more expensive than locally available products.

Thanks to new partnerships with banks, farmers are now becoming eligible for the credit they need to make these investments. The ultimate goal is that through higher yields, better produce quality and good storage, farmers will earn higher incomes and the local market will be better served. Partnerships will help farmers to serve this rapidly emerging market, in which supermarkets are taking charge of vegetable distribution. With our pilot program involving 20 farmers, we hope to motivate other farmers to adopt this way of working.

Asia

With the support of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, we have started a project in Indonesia, working with local parties, to teach farmers to cultivate shallots from seed. The local traditional way of growing from onion sets suffers from a lot of disease pressure and failed crops. The DGS/ Bejo breeding program has developed Maserati, a variety that is highly suitable for Indonesia’s tropical climate. But growing from seed involves completely different skills than growing from

4

1 Mrs Bra is part of the training onion sets, so sharing the required knowledge and setting up a structure for doing so is the first priority in this project as well. With an area of 120,000 hectares, Indonesia is by far the largest shallot producer in the world, and the local annual consumption of 3.5 kg per person is comparable to Dutch onion consumption.

Central America

For the last 25 years, we’ve carried out extensive testing and breeding programs in Guatemala to develop a range that is increasingly suited to the climate and other conditions in Latin America.

A dealer network extending over more than 10 surrounding countries ensures that almost every grower can use high-quality seed as propagating material, resulting in better harvests and a higher income. Every year Bejo holds the 2-week Días de Campo (Field Days) in Guatemala, visited by the dealers and thousands of growers. The event offers plenty of opportunity to learn about good cultivation techniques, new varieties, and the benefits of vegetables and a healthy lifestyle. The students at Bejo’s Melanie Beemsterboer school in Guatemala also help out. Every semester, a group of 15 students aged between 12 and 15 years starts at this school.

They learn basic general skills, such as working with computers, and agricultural skills. This is our contribution to offer them a better outlook for the future.

program. Here she shows a beautiful Sakanal variety.

2 Assessment of a trial patch in Senegal.

3 Improved storage facilities ensure longer storage life for the onions and prevent losses during the rainy season.

4 At the Allium Training Center

in Indonesia farmers are shown

how to grow shallots from seed.

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SEED ENHANCING FORMULA A STRONG START

Brings more energy to the seedling

Stimulates its growth in the earliest stage

Improves the vigour of the plant

Leads to improved stress tolerance and better overall health

Supports uniform crop development

This leads to:

Lower business risk

Crops less vulnerable to disease

High quality product, smooth root

Higher pack-out, up to 15%

B-Mox seed enhancing formula is applied to all primed carrot and primed rooted parsley seed, also organic.

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