Seeding the future with our R&D Power House.
In 2019, KWS decided to step into the vegetable seed business. With a strong legacy in agricultural crops, this move represents a significant and bold step, one that requires a true entrepreneurial spirit. It immediately sparked my interest to join the team. Coming from an independent research company where I had almost no sight of what eventually happened with my findings, I imagined how rewarding it would be to perform research and apply the tools, technologies, and my expertise needed to breed superior varieties and see the final product with my own eyes.
So, I applied and became one of the first employees of the newly born Vegetable business of KWS. Ok… Now what? Clearly, the aim for our newly formed research department was to support Breeding in speeding up the development of varieties by implementing state-of-the-art molecular breeding and cell biology technologies that were available at the R&D Powerhouse of KWS. It was really like stepping into a huge candy store! It took me at least six months to explore the grand opportunities available. My focus was on identifying tools, technologies, and traits for vegetable crops, and determining what would work best for our goals.
In addition, we started phytopathology activities to find key resistances for our crops. I started collaborating with my colleague Paul Kuin, who is a Molecular Breeder. We took seeds of all the fruity crop varieties, and in no time, we went from sowing and sampling seeds to producing our first molecular markers in just a few months. This was truly groundbreaking and allowed our new breeding programs to accelerate. This rapid progress was made possible by implementing and refining sampling and DNA isolation methods, know-how and technologies that were already in-house at KWS.
So, there you have it: our first official breeding activities in fruity crops. To further expand our capabilities, we set up a cell biology lab in Wageningen in 2022. Here, we cultivate plants that are afterwards transported to Andijk for seed production, forming a vital link in our operations.
With a small team but through very close cooperation and a strong focus, we can be extremely fast. With a lot of technological support from the global KWS family, we can achieve such great speed. This will soon translate into new varieties in the fruity vegetables market and even better varieties for the open field vegetables portfolio.
Our presence is where the magic happens. That means we’re expanding our breeding stations at full speed all over the world. This way, we can leverage local conditions for agile and effective breeding practices.
Our dedication has borne fruit with the development of our first commercially available hybrids, notably in tomato and watermelon. Looking ahead, we expect to launch hybrids for various crops in the next one to two years, which will exceed our initial expectations. Our success lies not only in our talented team and facilities, but also in the speed with which Research and Breeding collaborate, bringing superior varieties to market.
This journey at KWS Vegetables has been more than a career – it has been an opportunity to pioneer change and contribute to a healthy future. As our team continues to grow – from a handful of pioneers to over 280 entrepreneurs – the momentum is set for even greater achievements ahead.
