Bangkok--26 Sep--Good Network
The biggest seed company in Thailand, East-West Seed, has joined hands with the biggest seed company in the world, Monsanto, in a business collaboration that will provide more choices for farmers and make more products available to the world market.
This collaboration will add temperate vegetable varieties developed by Monsanto to East-West Seed’s successful range ofmainly tropical vegetable varieties.
At V.C. @ SuanPaak Hotel in Chiang Mai, Mr. Bruno Lefeuvre, Group Sales and Marketing Manager of East-West Seed Netherlands and Mr. Wichai Laocharoenpornkul, General Manager of East-West Seed Thailand, entered a business collaboration agreement with Monsanto, which was represented by Mr. Wenjo Lapez, South East Asia Strategic Business Manager – vegetable seed group, and Mr. Boonlert Aphinaiprasit, South East Asia Sales Manager. This represents a significant collaboration between the leader in tropical vegetable seeds and the global seed industry leader.
Mr. Lefeuvre said the collaboration between East-West Seed and Monsanto will create more business opportunities for East-West Seed, which has enjoyed success in the tropical seed market for over 30 years. Presently, East-West Seed is the number one seed company in Thailand with 38% of the overall market share, or about 2.2 billion baht.
Under this collaboration, the vegetable seed products of Seminis and De Ruiter (both brands of Monsanto) will be exclusively distributed by East-West Seed under its “ sorndaeng ” brand and
packaging. This also includes managing the marketing activities and providing after-sales service to dealers and farmers. Dealers will gain better access to Seminis and De Ruiter products through the strong and active distributor network of East-West Seed in four countries: Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar.
Initially, there are 9 selected varieties that will be sold in Thailand.
1) Hybrid hot pepper “Hot chili”
2) Lettuce “Rider”
3) Lettuce “Frillice”
4) Squash zucchini “Senator”
5) Long cucumber “Malini”
6) Watermelon “Sweet gold”
7) Garden bean “Matador”
8) Garden bean bush (type) “Stringless Blue Lake S-7”
9) Sweet onion “Granex 33”
At the ASEAN level, this marketing collaboration and distribution partnership will boost the seed industry by giving additional options to dealers and farmers and making high-quality seeds available, which is vital to food production in the region.
Aside from this collaboration, East-West Seed puts great effort in developing and improving seed varieties through its R&D hub named the Simon Groot Research and Development Center in AmpurSansai, Chiang Mai. It is a state-of-the-art R&D station with the most advanced technology in plant breeding. East-West Seed is the only company in Asia which has invested nearly 30 million baht for a DNA marker machine. The purpose of this machine is for DNA comparison, reducing the time for research and resulting to quicker development of many new varieties/breeds to be brought out to the market.
Furthermore, East-West Seed is the first company accredited by the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) for meeting the Seed Laboratory World Standard in Thailand in 2009.
East-West Seed maintains high standards of seed production process, starting from selection to seed testing for purity and germination. East-West Seed products are also film coated to prevent disease during the sprouting period, and are packaged to maintain the seed quality at high standards before being delivered to the dealer shop.
Mr. Wenjo Lapez of Monsanto said the collaboration will benefit from the strong distributor network of East-West Seed in multiple countries. At the same time, Monsanto will continue to develop seed varieties for its key markets.
None of the varieties under this collaboration use GMO technology, as East-West Seed does not carry any GMO products under its policy.All East-West Seed products are developed using conventional breeding, which allows breeders to select the desired characteristics in hybrids.