User:Marc Eteer/SESVanderHave NV

SESVanderHave, founded in 2005 and led by CEO Rob van Tetering, is an international sugar beet seed company. The company specializes in sugar beet seed breeding and production. They focus on research and innovation with the goal of developing competitive sugar beet varieties with specific characteristics such as disease tolerance, drought resistance, ...

History
The history of SESVanderHave goes back to two companies, the Dutch VanderHave and the Belgian SES Europe, which were respectively started in 1879 and 1948.

In 1977 VanderHave was taken over by Cosun (Suiker Unie) and in 1987 SES was taken over by the British multinational ICI, which decided to group SES together with several other activities within a separate international company, called Zeneca.

In 1996 Zeneca and Cosun merged to form Advanta, the world’s fifth largest seed company at that time.

In 2005, the Florimond Desprez group acquired Advanta’s sugar beet seed activities and launched the SESVanderHave brand.

Activities
SESVanderHave focuses solely on sugar beet seed. At least 15% of their revenue is invested in Research and Innovations.

Through extensive research and plant breeding, different varieties are developed. The goal is to deliver new sugar beet varieties with higher yields, a smaller environmental footprint and higher resistance to pests and diseases such as cercospora leaf spot, beet cyst nematode, virus yellows, meloidogyne, syndrome ‘basses richesses’ and many more. The next generation of sugar beet varieties has to be robust, adapted to multiple environmental stresses like drought, saline and heat, while resilient enough to deliver yield under lower input regimes (e.g. nitrogen).

The indoor breeding and selection of new varieties happens mainly in the SESVanderHave Innovation Centre (SVIC). The SVIC was one of the most high-tech research facilities ever built for the sugar industry and represents a 10 million Euro investment. The vast 2-hectare centre includes greenhouses, growth and cold rooms, technical facilities, laboratories and offices.

When new varieties are selected, they are multiplied on ‘seed production fields’. After the harvest, the seeds are processed in one of the four SESVanderHave factories, located in Tienen (Belgium), Kyiv (Ukraine), Calignac (France) and Alexeyevka (Russia). Processing consists of various steps, such as cleaning, priming, pelleting, coating and packaging.

In the USA, SESVanderHave seeds can be recognized by their metallic red coating. In all other markets, SESVanderHave is known for its typical blue sugar beet seeds.

Product segmentation
SESVanderHave breeds for new sugar beet varieties, depending on local needs.

The choice of varieties and their segmentation happens independently in each country. An example of segmentation in the Netherlands, France , Belgium and Germany : Next to that, sugar beet varieties may be specifically developed for the Biogas industry or have additional disease tolerance such as for SBR, RZM² (extended rhizomania resistance), …
 * Rhizomania segment
 * Nematode segment
 * Rhizoctonia segment

Another type of sugar beet varieties are the CONVISO® SMART varieties. These varieties are ALS-tolerant and must be used in combination with the Bayer herbicide CONVISO® ONE for effective weed control. The herbicide affects the weeds that are not tolerant to its ALS-components. The CONVISO® ONE herbicide is destined for professionals only and should be used with caution. One should always read the label and product information before use.

Challenges for agriculture
Today, not only growing sugar beets, but agriculture in general faces enormous challenges. The world population has exploded and is still growing ; increased food production, food security and energy are all competing for critical demands. Land, energy , and water use add complexity to the equation. Climate change simply accelerates and amplifies the pressures, with stricter legislation on the use of plant protection, plant nutrition and genetic technologies.

The need to reconcile more sustainable agriculture with the pressure to guarantee food supply is imperative for many countries and is captured in the Farm-to-Fork strategy and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, or the US Farm Bill. To make this agro-ecological transition happen, SESVanderHave integrates these competing needs into their R&D pipeline and also invests in state-of-the-art breeding technologies, big data analyses, bioinformatics, use of remote sensing technologies.

External link

 * Official website