RZ-100-wt4-E-flipbook-240702 - Flipbook - Page 108
In all of these areas, research is the driving force
behind product innovation. This is why breeding
and research account for around 30 per cent of
the company’s total seed sales. An amount
that soon runs into tens of millions. In De Lier,
there is great awareness of the importance that
biotechnology can have for the future breeding
of horticultural crops. Selection programmes
are supported and accelerated with marker
techniques and techniques for the accelerated
uniformity of cross-breeding parents.
Rijk Zwaan achieves many
Grow Group certification for organically grown vegetable plants.
world firsts; this time an
Besides the application of biotechnology,
aphid-resistant iceberg lettuce.
Rijk Zwaan is also strengthening its conventional
Organic cultivation
breeding efforts. Its experience and knowledge in
Organic cultivation is the production of food
this field enables it to continue developing excel-
without the use of chemical pesticides and
lent varieties in this way too.
fertilisers. Due to a growing aversion to the use
Besides biotechnology and conventional selection
of chemicals and the associated environmental
methods, the company also focuses on seeds for
stresses, this form of vegetable cultivation
organic cultivation.
became popular and emerged from its pioneering
phase in the 1980s. An increasing number of ‘mainstream’ growers are switching to this method of
production after first going through a transition
period. With the Grow Group, Rijk Zwaan has also
chosen to be active in this market segment.
Back in 1992, the company decided to pay special
attention to the organically grown seeds required
by organic growers. In the large Rijk Zwaan range
of vegetable varieties, a selection is also made in
Genetically modified
organisms (GMOs)
The rapidly increasing knowledge of the genome and the
This technique offers opportunities that do not exist in conven-
genes of plants will mean that in the future, a first sketch of
tional breeding, because in genetic modification the available
the ‘gene picture’ of the variety to be developed can be made
gene source is not limited to species that can be crossed with the
in the laboratory.
crop. However, this technique of ‘transgenesis’ also raises questions
However, even though the supporting role of the laboratory is
about whether products created in this way are safe for humans
increasing, the new variety will continue to be selected under
and the environment. From the start of this development,
field or greenhouse conditions. In biotechnology, genetic
Rijk Zwaan’s policy has been that it doesn’t rule out the use of
modification plays a special role: the transfer of new genes into
genetic modification when studying how genes work but will not
a crop from other crops (or even from other life forms).
include transgenic varieties in its product range.
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Rijk Zwaan | Moving forward together
