In 2019 KWS chose to diversify into vegetable plant breeding. The company KWS Vegetables was founded with a dedicated focus on vegetables. In the last 2 years, they have proven to be a serious new player that aims at becoming an important player in the market.
Their focus is the “Big five” crops: tomato, pepper, cucumber, melon and watermelon. Further development is based on three pillars; selling varieties in license, acquisition of seed companies and organic growth.
Growth & development
Based on these three pillars, KWS Vegetables aspires to bring a great assortment of varieties to the market. The Pop Vriend Seeds takeover was a first and essential step. This was also the first encounter with the E-Brida Plant Breeding Software and the company that supports it. In March 2021 KWS Vegetables acquired Geneplanta. Apart from Pop Vriend Seeds and Geneplanta there are projects for other acquisitions around the globe. Growth and ambition are what this company breaths and although it originates from a large company; the setup and culture are very much like a start-up company.
E-Brida as the central R&D tool
‘Ever since we started, we have been looking for a plant breeding solution that fits our needs’, says Rik Brugman, Germplasm Coordinator at KWS Vegetables from their headquarters in Wageningen, The Netherlands. ‘After reviewing several options, we quickly got a preselection of 2 possible solutions. Our partners are already using E-Brida and they are very pleased with the solution and service. This, combined with a great observation app, made us decide to choose Agri Information Partners (AIP) and their product E-Brida’, Rik explains.
‘We’re happy with our choice for E-Brida and feel confident we can make this into a successful collaboration. Together with AIP we formed a dedicated implementation team comprising experts from both ends. The experienced consultants from AIP will guide the individual plant breeders to translate and optimize their working process into E-Brida. This will be quite some work, but we look forward to the end result.’
Global reach from Wageningen headquarters
At this time, 15 people are working at this site, coordinating activities around the globe. Worldwide KWS Vegetables has app. 150 employees. ‘This number will definitely increase in the years to come’ Rik concludes. E-Brida will fully support the ambitions of this new vegetable seed company.
About
Agri Information Partners (AIP) is an IT and consulting firm specializing in plant breeding. We provide expert consultancy on topics such as plant breeding, product management, and logistics. We develop and integrate tailor-made software solutions and carry two off-the-shelf products; E-Brida for Plant Breeding and Mercado for Product Management.
