Seed firms De Ruiter Seeds, Seminis and PoloniSemences came together last week to hold the International Melon Days 2009 in Parma, Italy, and to announce a restructure in the way they operate within the industry as a whole.
More than 140 people from over 13 different countries gathered at the melon conference and field trial demonstrations to hear that from September 1, the melon side of De Ruiter Seeds will move to Seminis in a reassignment of the product portfolio throughout the whole group.
PoloniSemences is part of the Monsanto-owned International Seed Group. Monsanto acquired Seminis in March 2005 and De Ruiter Seeds last year. In the restructure of the companies, Seminis will specialise in open field crops, De Ruiter will take on control of protected products and PoloniSemences will study the final solution for the consumer.
Alois van Vliet, Seminis business lead, told delegates that the three companies aimed to combine to create one global research platform and to try to perfect the best varieties in the market.
“The three companies have come together today to bring all the supply chain together,” he said. “We would like to discuss the important parts in the supply chain - the innovation and trends - to find out what consumers really want. Technology is not the only point. We have to improve on production and bring the supply chain together for change.
“But we have to make choices and we have to focus and we want to understand what is important for all the supply chain. We need to make money and create value.”
Van Vliet said that the restructure will mean the companies can combine the highest quality and best-performing varieties and that the industry will see many new types of melons in the next couple of years.
No comments yet