Syngenta Vegetable Seeds has announced a commitment to accelerate its focus in Iberia by investing an additional €2.4 million (£2m) in research and development centres in Spain.
This investment in its El Ejido R&D Centre will allow Syngenta to further develop and deploy new technologies, aiming to enhance product performance using digital tools, analytics and data science, the company said.
Syngenta will also utilise this investment to secure long-term R&D investments in strategic crops and fast-track the development process required to sustain the launch of commercial products that serve customers in over 100 countries.
UK growers will initially benefit from the investment through the development of Syngenta’s romaine, mini romaine, gem, Babyleaf and multi leaf crops by breeders based in Spain, Syngenta said.
'This is an unprecedented opportunity that will highlight our R&D centres in Almería and Murcia as global focal points for plant breeding innovation and the development of new vegetable seed varieties for growers around the world,' said José Manuel Zapata, Vegetable Seeds Biological Operation Site Head in Spain.
As a part of this investment, a new farm in the Torre Pacheco area will offer greater automation and digitization, enabling quicker adoption of new technologies to pioneer and set novel benchmarks for plant breeding.
Syngenta Vegetable Seeds said it aims to place the customer at the heart of everything. The modernisation of these facilities will allow the enhanced collaboration with customers in the market and bring solutions to their farms and operations.
“We have a unique opportunity ahead of us to strengthen our position and focus on the market, giving an important boost to productivity for growers. It will allow us to be closer to them, providing them with better service and the most innovative solutions,” says Luis Martin, Syngenta’s Southwest Europe territory head.
