History

Rijk Zwaan as a company has more than 80 years’ experience and expertise in the area of breeding vegetables and seed production. Mr. Rijk Zwaan opened a shop in vegetable seeds in Rotterdam in 1924, which formed the foundation of the company which still bears the founder’s name to this day. From the very start, Rijk Zwaan strove to develop his own vegetable varieties for commercial horticulture. Apart from developing and selling vegetable seed, he also gave all his customers comprehensive, expert growing advice.

Nurseries
In order to be able to optimally carry out research and development activities, Rijk Zwaan built his own nursery and selection nursery in Bergschenhoek in 1932. From then on Rijk Zwaan steadily developed into a leading company in food-producing horticulture. Not only in the Netherlands, but later on also abroad. The first subsidiary was established in Germany in 1964. From this first base on foreign soil, the company’s activities also spread to many other countries over the years. The parent company moved to its present location, De Lier, in 1970 in the heart of a showcase area for glasshouse horticulture.

Developments
Rijk Zwaan has been thé lettuce specialist for more than half a century. From its inception as a company in 1924, Rijk Zwaan has developed varieties which suit the growing conditions on growers’ nurseries perfectly. This pioneering work formed the basis for subsequent new developments in the vegetable-producing industry. Rijk Zwaan varieties had enormous influence on the development of glasshouse winter lettuce crops in western Europe.

International activities
From 1980 onwards, international activities have increased significantly. This has led to, amongst other things, the founding of a subsidiary in France in 1984. Further international expansion followed with subsidiaries also set up in the UK (1987), Spain (1988) and Belgium (1989). In 1990, Rijk Zwaan grew progressively stronger internationally till the current 20 subsidiaries all over the world.

Investments
The 1990s were characterised for Rijk Zwaan by further globalisation and rapid technological development. During this period Rijk Zwaan made sizeable investments in its own research in the areas of, amongst others, cell biology, molecular biology, fytopathology and seed technology. Rijk Zwaan also decided to drastically expand the floor area of its offices and nursery and modernise them.

Worldwide
Today, Rijk Zwaan sells vegetable seeds all over the world. On a global scale, Rijk Zwaan has more than 1200 employees, 600 of whom are employed abroad. The strong motivation, knowledge and experience of all these employees form the basis of Rijk Zwaan’s success. This is what has made Rijk Zwaan grow into an international, leading company in commercial vegetable-producing horticulture.